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Yusuf (Cat Stevens): Roadsinger

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Island Records
Released: 2009.05.09
Time:
 31:37
Category: Folk Rock
Producer(s): Yusuf, Martin Terefe
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.yusufislam.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Welcome Home (Yusuf) - 4:23
[2] Thinking 'Bout You (Yusuf) - 2:31
[3] Everytime I Dream (Yusuf) - 3:09
[4] The Rain (Yusuf) - 3:26
[5] World O' Darkness (Yusuf) - 2:23
[6] Be What You Must (Yusuf) - 3:25
[7] This Glass World (Yusuf) - 2:02
[8] Roadsinger (Yusuf) - 4:09
[9] All Kinds of Roses (Yusuf) - 2:38
[10] Dream On [Until...] (Yusuf) - 1:56
[11] Shamsia (Yusuf) - 1:29

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Yusuf (aka. Cat Stevens) - Cover Art, 12 String-, Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Organ, Percussion, Photography, Piano, Spanish Guitar, Synthesizer, Synthesizer Bass, Producer


Martin Terefe - Bass, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Mixing, Piano, Producer
Pete Adams - Piano, Wurlitzer
Jimmy Bowland - Tenor Saxophone
Mark Clark - Drums
Yogi Lonich - Bottleneck Guitar, Acoustic & Electric Guitar
Kenny Passarelli - Bass Guitar
Kristoffer Sonne - Drums, Tambourine

David Davidson - Arranger, String Arrangements, Violin
David Angell - Violin
Monisa Angell - Viola
John Catchings - Cello
Anthony LaMarchina - Cello
Gill Long - Tuba
Chris Wilkinson - Viola

Jennifer Kummer - French Horn
Chris McDonald - Trombone
Will Simmons - Wind Chimes

Michelle Branch - Background Vocals
James Morrison - Background Vocals
Gunnar Nelson - Background Vocals
Terry Sylvester - Background Vocals
Holly Williams - Background Vocals

Ramzi Ammouri - Engineer
Dyre Gormsen - Engineer
John Hanlon - Engineer
Iain Hill - Engineer
Bobby Shin - Engineer
Taemin Choi - Assistant Engineer
Bob Engel - Assistant Engineer
Heather Sturm - Assistant Engineer
William Paden Hensley - Assistant Engineer
Doug Tyo - Assistant Engineer
Michael Brauer - Mixing
Bill Szymczyk - Mixing
Thomas Juth - Assistant Engineer, Mixing
Bob Ludwig - Mastering
Mark Aaron James - Cover Art
Jesse Dylan - Photography
Aminah Islam - Photography
David Spero - A&R, Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Yusuf Islam's (formerly Cat Stevens) previous recording, 2006's An Other Cup was a mostly enjoyable lighter weight - and yes, sometimes preachy - extension of the latter albums in his previous incarnation. An Other Cup captured the more stretched melodic frames of albums such as Foreigner, Buddha and the Chocolate Box, and even Back to Earth. The compositional sense here, on the far more satisfying Roadsinger, is much more direct, laid-back, earthy, and yet elegant. And while it definitely points forward, Roadsinger looks back to excellent recordings such as Catch Bull at Four and Teaser and the Firecat: on the intro to "Be What You Must" he even quotes "Sitting"! The voice here is immediately recognizable as that of the man who gave us so many beautiful, direct songs about living, searching, observing, and waiting. It has been deepened a bit by age, but somehow that adds to its quality. Certainly most, if not quite all, of these songs deal with spiritual themes, and yes, they discuss how one can be happy and whole by embracing a spiritual way of life, but the manner in which they do so is gentle, more attraction that promotion, and the compositions themselves stand up to the past while furthering a musical vision that is at the heart of who this artist always was. The songs are low intensity, mostly hummable, and always rooted in the strumming or fingerpicking of an acoustic guitar even as strings, electric guitars, wispy percussion, and sometimes horns wind their way in without digging as deeply into the pop-conscious productions of An Other Cup. The set was co-produced with Martin Terefe, who has also worked with Martha Wainwright and James Morrison.

The album fits like a glove onto Stevens' former identity, with some songs as gloriously rich and beautiful as anything he's ever written. With its lithe string arrangement and guitar work by Yogi Lonich, the title track asks a central question: "...Where do you go/When the world turns dark/And the light of the truth is blown out/And all the roads are blocked..." "Dream On" is a gauzy, small wonder of a track with a gorgeous saxophone part that stands as an accompaniment to the repetitive vocal. "All Kinds of Roses" is a hymn to tolerance despite one's own beliefs; its metaphors are artfully layered. The opener, "Welcome Home," feels like Stevens never exited the stage - though we all know he did for nearly three decades - with its strummed acoustic and that opening baritone offering ever so gently the lines "On the path, all seekers this way...carried down to the marketplace/No one knew my face/Then a stranger sang, with a voice like the wind/Then the hills began to sing, 'welcome in.'" "Shamsia," the disc closer, is a haunting piano and string instrumental dedicated to a young Afghan girl who defied the Taliban and attended school even though she was blinded as punishment. Even the cover, with its peace sign-bearing VW microbus standing in a square with Islam playing and singing under a street lamp, signifies that this is a return, and that the two paths he kept separate for so long, that of a pilgrim and that of an artist and traveling musician, have merged on one all-embracing road. Roadsinger is an utterly solid catalog entry under either his adopted spiritual name or his former one. Longtime fans will not be disappointed, and the rest of us should take note, too, because this kind of songcraft is seldom come by anymore.

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide



An experience as you would expect from the former Cat Stevens.

Three years after he broke his near three-decades-long silence, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens returns with his second album since converting to the Islamic religion in 1977 and adopting a new name, Yusuf Islam.

Roadsinger sidesteps the surprising pop-savvy orientations of 2006’s comeback, An Other Cup, to pick up, says Yusuf, ‘where the Cat Stevens the public knows left off’. Certainly, the approach is recognisably the same lo-fi, low-tempo and, in its now curiously manicured way, low-key lyrical one you would expect of Cat Stevens. That once familiarly soft, downy, coffee-caramel voice survives, too, albeit noticeably heavier, darker and ingrained with age.

But where Cat Stevens’ lyrics were invitations to dream and to be, Yusuf’s are laced with metaphorical exhortations to believe and obligations to become. Only the sleepy ‘Dream On’, with its saxophone accompaniment swaying like a cosseting summer night’s breeze, comes close to the sentiment of past glories here, and even then does so with an uncomfortably awkward sense of letting-go.

Prominent throughout is Yusuf’s faith, with Welcome Home, World of Darkness, All Kinds of Roses and virtually every other song taking on an obvious autobiographical tone that some may find a touch insistently intrusive. The title track is an especially saccharine-coated eulogy about finding ‘the path to Heaven through the desert sand’, while ‘This Glass World’ is a Tom Petty-out-of-mid-period-Elvis Costello sermon masquerading as a lament.

The Cat Stevens of old pops up just once, and gloriously so, in the tinny, bar-room piano introduction of To Be What You Must, but it’s Yusuf who delivers the album’s stand-out track: the ravishingly beautiful instrumental miniature, ‘Shamsia’, a touching tribute to a young Afghan girl who defied a Taliban blinding to continue attending school.

Produced by Yusuf with the assistance of Martha Wainwright and James Morrison collaborator, Martin Terefe, and with contributions from Morrison, Michelle Branch and Holly Williams, Roadsinger may not quite click neatly into place as intended, but it remains as mellow and meditative an experience as you would expect from the former Cat Stevens.

Michael Quinn, 2009
BBC Review



When Cat Stevens said he would never sing ever again in the late 70s, I was devastated and it seems it was just yesterday. Nah, I’m just messing with you, but still… Here was this absolutely brilliant young man that had conquered mankind just giving up on everything he had been until that moment. I’m surprised to see how many people don’t know he wrote ‘Wild World‘ and ‘Father and Son‘. He’s also known for writing personal songs (I’m naming just lady d’Arbanville, wrote for his American girlfriend, Patti D’Arbanville), and being a militant for peace, with my personal favorite, Peace Train. So here was this amazing artist giving up music, and I’ll tell you why as an addendum at the end of the review.

Luckily, it took him only 25 years to change his mind, and he returned, with An Other Cup, his first pop album since 1978, but his return to music came gradually. However, it wasn’t the same. I think Cat Stevens and Yusuf Islam resemble Paul Atreides and Muad’Dib (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you really should read Dune), because while Cat Stevens songs were literally dreams and hopes, Yusuf Islam’s are metaphore filled real observations and invitations to become and act. What’s just amazing about this album is that if you enjoy listening to any song, you’ll enjoy them all. Despite the fact that it’s very spiritual and feels very personal, it has nothing to do with religion; at most times it even feels there’s not a man singing, but rather a conscience. The music he is able to create is so different from what we hear today but it somehow feels so right, and I’d advise most if not all Bon Iver fans to listen to it, because ladies and gents, this is the real thing: brilliance from a living legend, who after all these years, seems to have finally found peace and serenity. With his unique voice and guitar and very little production, he delivers amazing lyrics with an ease that would make anybody jealous; as one of his songs so eloquently puts it, “If you came back again, you know I’d give my lovin’ to you”. So he’s back, and guess what: we’re loving him.

You can’t really say any track stands out, despite the opener ‘Welcome Home‘ and title giver ‘Roadsinger‘ seem to be the deepest tracks and they seem to mean the most to the artist; my personal favorite is ‘Be What You Must’, but that’s probably because I can relate to it on a number of levels. ‘Thinking ‘Bout You‘ and ‘Everytime I Dream‘ just seem to be a bit short, but the quality is ever so high. ‘World O’ Darkness‘ seems to be quite a theme for him, and I just love the lyrics here, and they’re just painfully true (Some sons dream of leaving / while they’re young at heart / but few choose the path towards / the land beyond the dark or No one loves his neighbor here / Nobody has the time / No one cares for anyone else / In the world there the sun don’t shine) and filled with metaphors (In this world of darkness / Evil rules by night / Some lay in the shadows While some are seeking light). Roadsinger is just … hard to describe. It tells a sad lonely story while being extremely upbeat and hopeful. What it says to me at least is that everything is going, people have gone awry and nobody cares anymore, but somehow, if you really want to, you will find your way. It just goes straight to your heart.

Then you have ‘Dream On (Until…)‘ which is a little bit repetitive, but manages to sound charming all the most, and it ends with ‘Shamsia‘ a special and sad instrumental with lots of piano – in other words, a perfect ending. While I’ve written reviews to many artists that have written songs over a long period of time I found that (at least in my opinion) in most cases the overall quality declines. Cat Stevens (or Yusuf Islam, but I prefer to call him Cat) has changed significantly, but his approach to music, peace and the world hasn’t changed a bit (“You don’t `make’ the music; you just interpret something that’s passing through you.“, he says). It’s the kind of album you love and that stands out despite being very humble and peaceful. In today’s musical context, it’s the quiet kung fu monk surrounded by muscle heads. This self taught musician has a guitar, a piano, a voice, and many things to say. A seeker on his way, he has a beautiful way of expressing himself and the best idea I can think of to describe this isthan what he said about picking the guitar again after almost 3 decades.

“It was that moment around dawn, morning time, when no one else was around. I decided to have a go and it felt so, so, natural. I could put my fingers exactly where they were 30 years ago (laughs) and yet it was so fresh. I think that was the most glorious of moments.”

Roadsinger is, without a doubt, an album that will warm you through the night.

P.S. Here’s the story about how he becamse a Muslim, how I know it at least (from a really old interview I read in a magazine). When he was in Morocco, he heard a ritual Muslim call for prayer, that he learnt was “Music for God”, which left him pretty shocked, as he had never heard of music for God before. A while from that, in ’76, he was in a boat, reflecting and writing songs off the coast of Malibu. A storm began, capsizing his boat and leaving him to drown. After a while, he shouted “Oh God! If you save me I will work for you.”. Seconds after he said that a big wave appeared and carried him to shore. He pursued in chasing the right way to serving God and looked into several religions, and finally, settled to Islam, gave up music and dedicated the next two decades and a half to educating people and philantropy. I don’t know if this story is true, or if he did in fact supported the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, but this story touched me, and at least to me, he always seemed a man in search of peace. Who knows, perhaps some day I’ll get the chance to ask him some questions and then I’ll tell you for sure.

© 2007-2014 ZME Music



Roadsinger (To Warm You Through the Night) is a studio album by Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens). Roadsinger is Yusuf's second mainstream release since his return to music. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 at position #41 and on the UK charts at #10.

The album was released by Island Records in the UK. It was released in the US by reissue label Hip-O Records and is catalogued under A&M Records. Hip-O Records also reissues Cat Stevens' A&M releases from the 1970s, hence Roadsinger is an addition to his A&M catalog.

"Everytime I Dream" was inspired by the media criticism of Yusuf Islam following his alleged support for the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini on Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses.

Wikipedia.org
 

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