Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
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Source	Rating
AllMusic
Christgau's Record Guide	A+
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Los Angeles Times
Music Story
MusicHound Rock	5/5
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Sputnikmusic	4.5/5

Moondance is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. After recording his commercially unsuccessful 1968 album Astral Weeks, Morrison moved with his wife to an artistic hamlet in upstate New York and began writing songs for Moondance. There, he met the musicians he would record the album with at New York City's A & R Studios in 1969.

Morrison abandoned the abstract folk compositions of Astral Weeks in favor of more formally composed songs on Moondance, which he wrote and produced himself. Its lively rhythm and blues music was the style he would become most known for in his career. The music incorporated soul, jazz, pop, and Irish folk sounds into ballads and songs about finding spiritual renewal and redemption in worldly matters such as nature, music, and romantic love.

After Moondance was released in 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, it became both a critical and commercial success, helping establish Morrison as a major artist in popular music. It has since been cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2013, the album's remastered deluxe edition was released to similar acclaim.

After leaving the rock band Them, Morrison met record producer Bert Berns in New York City and recorded his first solo single, "Brown Eyed Girl", in 1967. When it became a hit, Morrison was offered a recording contract from Warner Bros. Records and recorded his first album for the label, Astral Weeks, in 1968. Although it was later acclaimed by critics, its collection of lengthy, acoustic, and revelatory folk-jazz songs was not well received by consumers at the time and the album proved to be a commercial failure.

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