Moondance by Van Morrison

Moondance, Van Morrison's third album, came out on Warner Bros. on 27 January 1970, and after the dreamy, abstract drift of Astral Weeks flopped, it's the sound of a man coming down to earth and finding he likes it there. He'd moved to upstate New York with his wife to write it, met the players who would back him, and cut it at A & R Recording in New York City in August and September 1969.

Instead of long, open-ended folk jazz meditations, these are tight, shapely songs with swing and a soul singer's grit. "And It Stoned Me" rolls in like a warm afternoon; the title track snaps its fingers and sways like a late-night jazz club; "Crazy Love" is tender to the point of melting; "Caravan" builds into a rollicking, joyous strut; and "Into the Mystic" floats out on a gentle, rolling tide. Rhythm and blues, rock, jazz, pop and a thread of Irish folk all weave together into songs about finding something holy in everyday things: nature, love, music and the simple act of believing in yourself.

It hit the ground running, with critics and buyers alike, and helped make Morrison a major artist, while several of its songs became fixtures on early '70s FM radio. The Grammy Hall of Fame took it in in 1999, and it still turns up on just about every serious list of the greatest albums ever made.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.