My Amazon Reviews: Cat Stevens "Tea for The Tillerman"

Taking the Bull by The Horns
4 Out Of 5 Stars

After the massive success of his albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat, Cat Stevens began to show the mental strains of stardom though the music on Catch Bull at Four. He started off with his usual meditative style with the Top 40 single "Sitting" and letting out a joyful cry with "Can't Keep It In," but the second half found him wishing he could get aboard a UFO and get away from everything in "Freezing Steel." Finally, as he sings in the war-torn walk through "Ruins," Stevens cries for the lost paradise of Eden and wonders where we all went wrong.

In the old side one and two days of vinyl, the happy was side one, the sad was side two. Stevens seemed to intentionally break these emotions into half here, walking you into his dilemmas after hooking you with his typical sounds one the first side. The lovely fairy tale that is "The Boy With The Moon and Stars on His Head" would be disillusioned by the deeply sad woman of "Sweet Scarlet." "Ah, but the song carries on," Stevens sings to Scarlet, even though he sounds more pained than ever before.

The music is still beautiful, despite the anguish that has begun to creep in. The urgency of some of the songs (like "Ruins") pushes Stevens more than he had done before, which means there are no peacemakers like "Morning Has Broken" to be found here. And by the next Cat Stevens album, Foreigner, it was obvious Stevens felt he could no longer relate to what he was doing and that he believed himself to be turning more and more into an outsider. "Catch Bull at Four" is the album that shows Cat as he started trying to navigate that space.

My Amazon Reviews: Cat Stevens "Tea for The Tillerman"

Taking a Ride on The Cosmic Train
5 Out of 5 Stars

I've tended to think of Tea For The Tillerman as Cat Stevens' most thoughtful album. It came before the more spiritually minded Teaser and the Firecat, and contained more personal songs. Be it the sorrowful goodbye of "Wild World" or the fractured conversation between "Father and Son," Stevens was trying to find answers in song to questions that tend to confound we mere mortals. While Stevens may not have known the answers, he was writing gorgeous songs about the quest.

To that end, there's a great deal of sadness across "Tea for The Tillerman." A somber Cat looks at the pain of "Sad Lisa," wondering what he can do to heal her. He frets about the bleakness of his future on "I Might Die Tonight." Bookending the CD are calls to save the future of our children. There's also joy in the songs "On The Road to Find Out" and the chanting "Longer Boats." His music was approaching the spiritual nature of his later work, but nonetheless, "Tea For The Tillerman" is British folk-rock at its finest and rates with Cat Stevens' best albums.

My Amazon Reviews: Yusuf/Cat Stevens "Roadsinger"

All Kinds of Roses Grow 

4 out of 5 Stars

The warmth that has always been a hallmark of Cat Stevens/Yusuf still permeates his work, and "Roadsinger" is no exception. His second album since returning to public performing (after the excellent An Other Cup)is a song cycle about love and the passage of time. His gentle melodies and warm voice are as delightful as ever, even if Yusuf's voice is not as supple as it used to be. His heart, however, is still in the same place as the man who gave us Teaser and the Firecat. He's found his spiritual place, which comes out in almost every song.

While his older work was about the search, which also gave those songs their sense of urgency, the songs on "Roadsinger" are a bit more on the, found but now asking why vein. The title track tells the tale of a lone wandering singer who is met with fear by the adults he meets in his travels, but trust and acceptance by the children. "All Kinds of Roses" (my personal fave on this CD) expands on the multi-cultural horizons that expand simply from the view of his garden. These are the best two songs on "Roadsinger."

Like on "An Other Cup," Yusuf also glances back at his past on "Roadsinger." He took the themes of Foreigner on "Cup," and you'll hear the piano motif from his single "Sitting" in "Be What You Must." Yusuf/Stevens has come to terms with his past and present, and "Roadsinger" finds him again melding those two time-lines together with a pleasing ease.