Van Morrison’s discography is full of classics, like 1968’s Astral Weeks and its follow-up, the 1970 album Moondance. Even his modern output has performed well: 2016’s Keep Me Singing charted in the top 10 in both the US and UK. The Irish musician has released a ton of albums over the past few decades, which means that there are bound to be some that aren’t exactly revered, or at least properly appreciated. One of those is Veedon Fleece. The 1974 record wasn’t warmly received in its time, but the album has since been hailed as an underrated classic.
Because of its up-and-down history, Veedon Fleece isn’t an easy record to find in stores, which makes Vinyl Me, Please’s February Essentials all the more appealing: The vinyl subscription service is giving the album its first vinyl re-release in 30 years. The record will be pressed on 180g emerald green vinyl and will feature a heavyweight tip-on jacket.
The album features a Celtic folk sound, and Morrison himself was dismissive of the record following its release. In 1978, he described the recording process (via the 2002 Morrison biography Can You Feel The Silence?), “Veedon Fleece was a bunch of songs that I wrote and then I just recorded it about four weeks after I wrote it. When you make an album you write some songs; you might have four songs and maybe you write two more, suddenly you’ve got enough songs for an album.”
Learn more about how to get the Veedon Fleece re-release here, and listen to album highlight “Bulbs” above.
