Album reviews: Cat Stevens / Yusuf | Rotorua Entertainment | Events, Movies and TV Guide for Rotorua

The Very Best of Cat Stevens
(Universal)

Yusuf
Roadsinger
(Eder)

One of the more distinctive and beautiful voices in popular music is captured in this 24-track greatest hits compilation full of recognisable classics such as Moonshadow, Wild World and (Remember the Days of the) Old School Yard, all of which also feature on the accompanying seven-track DVD.

There may be few fans not already driven by nostalgia to seek these songs out after Cat Stevens' recent New Zealand concerts, but it's also a great introduction to those who have always found the music too cheesy or too 70s.

And it is the 60s tracks that appeal the most here, especially Matthew And Son with its fantastic orchestration, but also The First Cut Is The Deepest and Here Comes My Baby, both of which were famously covered by others.

Check out the end of the DVD for the Spike Milligan-voiced short film Teaser And The Firecat, based on Stevens' children's book.

Stevens, having already changed his name early in his career, became Yusuf Islam in 1978 and now records as just Yusuf.

His most recent album, Roadsinger, is not a million miles from the music of his feline days, if not the sound of a man more worldly, wise and weary.

Included is the slightly odd, show tune-ish-with-touches-of-Tom-Petty bonus track Boots and Sand, written by Yusuf after he was denied entry to the United States in 2004 because his name was on a watchlist.

The title track is good enough to merit a place on the above compilation, but the highlight of Roadsinger is Everytime I Dream, a blues-infused, evocative track with Grand Canyon-deep brass rumblings and a sweet mix of guitars under nightmarish lyrics.
A Cat by any other name can, it seems, sound as sweet.

4/5

3/5