A lot, if not most of Van's work I have little to no use for, but there's a 4 LPs that are IMO essential listening.
Astral Weeks, obvs. Moondance, sure, good LP for lazy drives and sunday afternoons with your lady. But everyone knows that.
The other two haven't been available on streaming services and have been OOP on CD for awhile now - Veedon Fleece and St Dominic's Preview. St Dominic's Preview is more pop-oriented, think Moondance rather than Astral, but still has a couple of great sprawling long form songs and is worth it for the title track alone. Veedon Fleece is the underrated masterpiece in Van's catalog, if only for the centerpiece - "You don't pull no punches, but you don't push the river" - it's only a generation and a distortion pedal away from being a precursor to Talk Talk, Radiohead, and even certain period of Swans...




