My Amazon Reviews: Cat Stevens "Foreigner"

Felined Ambition

3 Out of 5 Stars

While in his creative and commercial peaks as an artist, Cat Stevens was feeling both an artistic and spiritual restlessness that culminated in "Foriegner" in 1973. He chose to produce himself, composed an 18 minute single side "suite," added a string section, more keyboards than acoustic guitars, female singers, and took artistic aim at the likes of Thick as a Brick or Abbey Road. Folks looking for the delicate folk-songs in the vein of "Peace Train" or "Wild World" were caught off guard by ambitiously orchestrated "Foreigner Suite" and the sad, lonely man singing "How Many Times."

Since this wasn't a rehash of Tea for the Tillerman or Teaser and the Firecat, there was a lot of confusion and outright hostility towards "Foreigner" at the time. Of the four more conventional songs on side two, only "The Hurt" entered the Top 40. Given the benefit of a quarter century, the album has in fact aged nicely. The suite has obviously remained a favorite of Stevens/Yusuf over the years, since his most recent recordings (Roadsinger and An Other Cup) have used some of the musical motifs found therin. He may have been growing weary of the rock star game, but you can't fault him for wanting to stretch out.