Van Morrison - Best 80s Album Poll!!

I voted Common One but not an easy choice.
Not many of these albums are still in print on either cd, vinyl or high resolution download. Thanks to a friend I have the downloads of CO, BV and Inarticulate etc (Into the Music was also done as a high res) and those 3 were also done on vinyl in the USA but not the UK.

 

Gosh! I must be getting old. Initially I didn't remember Irish Heartbeat from the album list, then I remembered that it was the album with the Chieftains, and now I've just remembered that I saw Van and the Chieftains at the Royal Albert Hall on that tour, and of course it was a great gig. Needless to say it's been a while since I listened to the album, but it's a good one.

 

I always felt there was something "wrong" about this song, and some others on the album (e.g. Northern Muse). I think you're right. To me the cymbal sound feels too rigid and precise (and upfront) for the mood of the lyrics. I just got the remastered CD to replace the previous issue and it's even more pronounced. Van goes disco??

However I still like the album - great songs of course - I've kind of got used to how it sounds, and it's not like this on all the tracks. Perhaps some of them come over better live - although on Grand Opera House, Dweller is taken much faster - when you go back to the studio version it sounds slow!

 

It's good to see that No Guru, No Method, No Teacher is getting lots of love. I still think Beautiful Vision is the better album though (dominant hi-hats, notwithstanding): stronger songs and wholey consistant (IMO) with no flagging of energy. No Guru..., as great as it is, gets a litte 'flabby' and out of puff on Side 2.

 

Van's got Neil Young (seriously did anybody have a worse decade ?), Stones, The Who well & truly covered. Clapton started the decade well & then got Phil Collinsed (Yuk).
Dylan may give him a run for his money.
I was never one to listen to Macca & I lost interest in The Kinks once the 70's started.

 

No Guru has really pulled out there. I do like a lot of that album, particularly In The Garden, Go To Go Back and Oh The Warm Feeling.

 

I'm running on memory as many of these albums I haven't listened to for quite a while but I do remember that No Guru No Method.. at the time was a daily listen for a fair stretch & that it took me to another place each time I listened to it. That's why it got my vote.

 

There are some terrific songs on there, and it's all incredibly well recorded as well.

 

I own the vinyl plus 3 cd versions (Warner, 1990s Polydor & 1998 remaster...) and this "issue" is present in all of them. At least on my gear (my profile is updated)

Still, it has many of my favourite Van tracks (She Gives Me Religion, Cleaning Windows, Vanlose Stairway)

 

No. He was extremely consistent in the 80s, at least as much as he was in the 70s.

 

Believe me, I’ve tried.

 

Looking down the list it's interesting how many of Van's albums here have their own "mood". Common One definitely does (the cover suits the album), Beautiful Vision/Inarticulate Speech do (they almost could have been a double album), No Guru does (especially with the Cor Anglais/Oboe), Irish Heartbeat (because of the Chieftains, obviously), and Poetic Champions (with its instrumentals and a lot of saxophone).

 

I picked Guru. He was better before and he would be better later in my opinion, but he was solid in the 80's.

 

Avalon Sunset

 

Really hard to choose only one, but went with Inarticulate as I love the spiritual sound of it, and I think it was the 1st of his 80s albums I fell in love with. But they’re all good!

 

Common One. The last great Van record, IMO.

 

Beautiful Vision squeeks out over Inarticulate Speech.

 

The last great Van Morrison IMO currently is Three Chords & The Truth. His next might even be better. We shall wait & see.

 

Beautiful Vision.

I saw Van twice in this period in 82 and 84 and they were both wonderful shows.

But there are great moments on all the albums here - "Carrickfurgus" from Irish Heartbeat and "Rave On John Donne / Rave On part Two" from the Grand Opera House - I love the transition in the middle.

Having checked out the voting I need to go back and listen to some of the others again - haven't played these for years...

 

I saw him live on the No Guru tour (complete with a string quartet) , so the album is special for me.

Could have picked Beautiful Vision or Poetic Champions Compose, but I like this whole run of albums a lot.

 

This one's easier than the 90's poll... Guru is the clear winner for me, although I've enjoyed most of the albums on this list, at different times, under different circumstances.

At one point I played Inarticulate Speech of the Heart once a night, for 7 nights straight!

 

My favourite Van decade. Full of beautiful transcendent music. No Guru is the one album I would save in a house fire. Common One can divide but it is a remarkable piece. Beautiful Vision is a top 5 Van album for me. Poetic Champions and Avalon Sunset both wonderful. Even Sense of Wonder which is my least favourite has so many great songs.

 

No Guru.... because "In The Garden" is so damn beautiful.

But almost a tie with Poetic Champions Compose.

The arrangements on both are stellar.

 

Greil Marcus in his not very good book on Van completely dismissed his 80s work, a judgment I disagree with. I saw a video of Marcus on the book tour promoting his book being challenged about his coldness toward Enlightenment. The pleasant-voiced young woman who questioned him seemed incredulous that he could not see the beauty in such a record. I think he said the music just didn't do anything for him. For me the decade's work is filled with beauties of feeling and invention. Even the song Sense of Wonder is a wonder on his weakest record of the decade. I chose Common One because it meant the most to me at the time, the early 80s being the last time rock meant something to me in a contemporary sense. Also, the record's massive sound and the great spaces Van created in the songs, its feeling for literature, love and nature were most impressive. I think I prefer it in the end to the great records at the end of the decade because it has a larger than life vision of things, a sweep maybe not matched by the later records.

 

I know it's often considered too mellow but I absolutely love "Poetic Champion"; it's classy stuff, with rich arrangements but highly melodic, and I really dig the jazz influences; one of my desert island discs