Crowning Glory
A jubilant return to the past from singer-songwriter royalty.
Cat Stevens/yusuf King Of A Land ★★★★
BMG/DARK Horse 538856902 (CD, LP)
The career arc of Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, is unique. A 60s pop sensation, he rode the 70s singersongwriter boom before changing his name and giving it all up for religion. Now, at age 74, he’s returned to music as Yusuf/cat Stevens and will be filling Glastonbury’s Sunday Legends spot this month.
No surprise, then, that a new album is coming at us – his 17th, fascinatingly released on the Dark Horse label founded by the late George Harrison and run by his son Dhani. Both Stevens and Harrison were, of course, both spiritually inclined, though it’s still curious not to see the familiar Island label. The dozen songs on offer range widely in age and mood; studios in Berlin, Brussels and Provence have all been utilised in the past 11 years. So this is effectively a “best of” the last decade. Is variety, then, the spice of Stevens?
As he explains in our interview, a number of songs are based on home-recorded demos, so re-engaged producer Paul Samwell-smith, who oversaw classic albums like Teaser And
The Firecat, Mona Bone Jakon and Tea For The Tillerman, has been limited to “embellishment” on some tracks. This is not an overly confessional collection: if you’re looking for self-revelation, you may have to wait for a forthcoming autobiography, but nevertheless there’s much to enjoy.
Train On A Hill hasn’t got the durability of Peace Train, but introduces the album in an attractively low-key style. As for mention of a higher power, there’s plenty of that – most of the songs mention God, but rarely in a preachy way. There’s even a song about Jesus, entitled Son Of Mary, but Muslims do consider him one of God’s messengers to mankind. The most direct “God song”, He Is True, clocks in at 20 seconds short of two minutes; hardly a lengthy sermon.
Buried in mid-album, Things is something of a throwback and reflects previous Cat classics like Where Do The Children Play in majoring on kids and their prospects. It’s interesting that his promo videos are childlike animations echoing the album artwork, avoiding the need to appear himself while tapping into the current fascination for Charlie Mackesy’s work. Title track and single King Of A Land matches brass with a youthful choir, suiting the mood.
Highness, a “full band” effort with a gospel chorus, perhaps indicates the direction a less drawn-out album process might have taken. But the best song is the newest: The Boy Who Knew How To Climb Walls, an anti-war anthem with all the power of yore. How Good It Feels, the oldest song, also impresses; it marries vocal intimacy with an elaborate orchestral arrangement and, at four and a half minutes, isn’t a moment too long.
There are relatively few catchy choruses to snag in the memory, so familiarity through repetition may be the key if old-time fans are willing to give Stevens one last nostalgic spin. He’s not a name often dropped by the Ed Sheerans of this world, though Another Night In The Rain, with its sequencer and prominent bassline, could easily be the product of a contemporary singer-songwriter. As could Take The World Apart, the jauntily minimalist album closer propelled by handclaps and percussion.
So, how many of these dozen tracks of the Cat are going to make it to Glasto’s Pyramid Stage on 25 June? Only time will tell…