Production Values

I've been playing An Other Cup by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens as was) quite often lately. It sounded extremely good on the system in KL and I got over my initial prejudice against it as being somewhat over-produced. That's something I felt even of the classic early Cat Stevens's albums - rather than paring the music down to its bare essentials, all that was really necessary with such fine material, there seemed a tendency to add a little too much sugar. However, it's impossible to deny the classic status of these albums and surely the production contributes something to that - and I'm finding the same about this latest offering as it steadily grows on the ear.

I wouldn't describe An Other Cup as consisting of vintage material. In fact, the use of earlier songs (stuff from Mona Bona Jakon - I Think I See The LIght, Foreigner - Heaven/Where True Love Grows, and a previously unrecorded number from 1968 - Green Fields and Golden Sands) suggests Yusuf is not exactly awash with new tunes. But it hardly seems to matter. One new song, The Beloved, is worth the price of the album, and the wonderfully relaxed vibe of the enterprise suggests a man at peace and communicating that peace seemingly effortlessly. The curiously harsh, strangulated vocals of some of the early albums (think Catch Bull At Four) have obviously gone for ever, and that's great for both Yusuf and the listener. The tender vulnerability of the vocal on Green Fields is, I think, the best thing he's ever done in terms of unadorned intimacy, something the early albums seemed to strive for but always fell short of somehow.

Given the negative press that has accrued to his name in recent years (but what can you expect given the range and depth of Islamophobia in British society?) I don't expect that An Other Cup will constitute any kind of breakthrough for Yusuf, but I suspect it will win over more than a few neutrals to his corner of goodwill and its accompanying good music.