-
- Even
if the voice is no more the old cat stevens
voice (he cant reach the higher notes like
when he was famous), this is cat stevens
at his best.
The
general mood is one of a folk album, I can
only think to Mona Bone Jakon more than
anything else; the production is fantastic,
I was scared when I saw who was the producer
but he did a fantastic job.
The
last song on the track list, "Greenfields,
Golden Sands", IS A NEVER-RELEASED
SONG HE WROTE IN 1968 and which was about
to go on Mona Bone Jakon. "Good songs
never die", says Yusuf about it. For
Yusuf, this song is very close to Lennon's
Imagine: "in that respect, you can
definitely see a clear stream between some
of the old songs of the idealistic 60s and
70s and the new", he says.
This one is a lovely, tender folk ballad
with a string quartet, wonderful.
The
new “I Think I see the
Light” is terrific:
with a stompin' heavy blues guitar riff,
horns and in the end even an electric guitar,
this is the most rock'n'roll cat stevens
you ever heard until now! Terrific vocal
performance too.
”Maybe
There's a World” is
a lovely country ballad, acoustic guitars,
a little oboe, I guess - solo in the background
in the end, very old fashioned Cat
”One
Day at a Time” is a
folk ballad, 60s style, very soft and with
a nice piano that reminds me of - in a way
- songs like Sad Lisa; is quite psychedelic
folk, West Coast 60s style.
”When
Butterflies Leave” is
only 42 seconds of spoken word with an harp
”In
the End” is a solid
ballad with a very nice melody, I think
there is even a bouzouki (in the end..)
”Whispers
From a Spiritual World”
is another short spoken word with a jazzy
piano and a bluesy guitar riff
”The
Beloved” might be the
masterpiece of the album: a middle-east
(but it could be also an Irish theme) string
quartet melody, changing of tempo, Youssou
n'Dour amazing vocals: is a true tour de
force, Yusuf entering a complete new musical
territory
We
already know the rest of the songs “Heaven/Where
True Love Goes”, “Don’t
Let Me Be Misunderstood”,
and “Midday”.
"in
the end", Never in my wildest dreams
I ever thought we could have such a great
album, so many years after the last Cat
Stevens masterpieces..
