After Tupelo Honey Van Morrison must have been faced with a choice. He could continue with his domestic tranquility myth, which was as artistically false as it might have been literally true, or he could head for new turf. He has chosen the latter course (wisely I think). If the result is more curious than classic, perhaps that is the price of adventure.

There are strands of nearly every kind of music Van Morrison has ever made in [St. Dominic's Preview]. It is short on the darkness and fire of Them, but the lilting r'n'b of "Domino" and "Blue Money," the exotic improvisation and searching of Astral Weeks and the mystic yearnings of Moondance are finally full-fledged. For the most part, St. Dominic's is old concerns seen in new lights, and a smattering of new ones, and the music follows suit.

If this record had followed Astral Weeks...