ihavebeenfloated

I haven’t written about any music in a while. Just haven’t really been driven to write about anything lately. This year has been really weak as far as music goes. That’s really sad. There’s a lot of stuff I haven’t listened to but no releases have really excited me.

Until I found out that Cat Stevens released a new album under his new name, Yusuf. I don’t know how I discovered Cat Stevens. I started listening to him about seven or eight years ago. He’s always been in my rotation and he’s always welcome to my ears, there are few artists that have hung around in my head that long. So, to say I was excited about new Cat Stevens was an understatement.

After 30 years his voice has a new age to it that is welcome. Yusuf has always had a warmly aged voice and with some real age in it, it sounds fantastic. The sound of his music is just the same, though the production is obviously a lot cleaner than it was in the past. Also the backing on some songs seems a little minimal compared to his work in the past, but then a few songs are totally over the top in layered orchestration.

The opening track is great, beautiful even, great lyrics. The second song was cringe inducing to me, which lyrics that just don’t seem to quite vibe, almost bordering on gospel in the way he has to sing them. It is also the first of many songs that delve into religious territory, although this is the most minor of all the songs that do. The End deals exclusively with judgment and seems concerned with giving you advice to be a better person. Maybe There’s a World is a cry for a better world, and is the first time we get to hear that signature burst of guitar and Yusuf’s voice to new grizzly heights. I smiled when I heard that.

Most significant to me is his cover of his own I Think I See The Light, which is my favorite Cat Stevens song. This is a real oddity, as it takes the somewhat straight forward original and warps it around and seems to stretch it across various styles of pop music all at once. One chorus is true to the original and the next one is a bit spicier with a keyboard behind it. It’s very strange, but very powerful and satisfying. It would be impossible to choose between this new version or the original.

There are two spoken word tracks, and having never really heard Yusuf talk before, it’s impressive how powerful his speaking voice is. His singing voice is gentle, with occasional aforementioned bursts of power, but his speaking voice is deep and commanding while still keeping a gentle edge. These tracks are oddities but do not stand out at all within the context of the record and I don’t think I would object to them coming up randomly in a mix of all my other music.

All in all this is a strong record that will probably get a good many spins from me. Sure, maybe three out of the eleven tracks are a little weak for being too heavily steeped in his religious joy and grace, but can you really fault the guy for being happy where he is? I don’t think so, personally, but that’s just me.