Cat Stevens as an old Muslim sounds more like Cat Stevens in 1971 than Cat Stevens did in 1978. Cat Stevens, Cat Stevens, Cat Stevens. This was my favourite album of 2009. I don’t know; there’s not a lot to say about it. Sure, it’s only half an hour long but it’s a half hour well spent. He’s still in top form even after over 20 years recording religious music, most of which was actually pretty good. To me there’s both dryness and openness to the sound of the record, like it was recorded outside in summer or in the desert.
It’s sort of hard to pick favourite tracks, they all have much the same feel to them. Obvious standout to me is Be What You Must which has the world’s only not horrible children’s choir as backup. The lyrics are also some of the best he’s ever written.
Apparently there are bonus tracks if you get the album on iTunes, not sure if they’re good but the album is. One of them has Paul McCartney on it so I may need to work out how iTunes works.
Be What You Must: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX5kCx7a07I
EDIT: How did I forget to mention the sax solo in Dream On? : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apZvssROsbA
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