Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

I heard this album for the first time on December 24, 2015. A few weeks earlier I got interested and subsequently bought it because, as a bass player myself, the repeated statement that Richard Davis "supplied what may be the most acclaimed bass lines ever to grace a pop record" made me think "this seems to be an album that any bass player should know and have", so I ordered it with no knowledge of what I was going to hear, no matter if i liked it or not.

I carefully listened to the album as soon as I received it and I was mesmerized. But not just because of the bass playing which is, in fact, phenomenal. It's that this album sounds like a true artistic statement to me. Pure sonic beauty. The mood of the songs is somehow repetitive, but each arrangement has new surprises when you listen to them for the first time. And there's an atmosphere of "focused improvisation" that I never heard on a pop album before. Like "we're going to play over a basic idea without any guidance and let's see what turns out from it". Nothing new in the jazz world, but this is not a jazz album.

I know I'm in a minority among veteran popular music lovers and collectors regarding my lack of previous exposure to this album. But for any music lover that may be out there ignorant of what's inside, please do yourself a favor. I can't the last time I was so impressed with a "new" discovery.