Cat Stevens - Teaser & The Firecat
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.48 You Save: $12.50 (66%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $6.46 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Teaser & The Firecat
Free Music Review: Unexpectedly good
Hit: 5 Stars
Cat Stevens has, over the years, had a bad press. On his conversion to Islam, he repudiated all his recordings as Cat. Unfortunately there were many other critics who were happy to join in the frenzy of repudiating Cat Stevens albums. The most common criticism was that his most popular tunes sounded like nursery rhymes. Maybe that was born of jealousy at the sheer attractiveness of so many of his melodies. In recent times, Cat has undergone a minor revival, partly triggered by the inclusion of 'The Wind' in the magnificent ALMOST FAMOUS movie, and partly due to the excellent remastering of all of his Island albums.
I have previously reviewed one of his greatest hits albums on amazon, and given it an unexceptional rating. But coming to 'Teaser ...' for the first time, I'm very favourably impressed by the quality and consistency of the album. The guitars come out of the remastering process particularly well.
The highlights for me are 'The Wind' and 'Moonshadow', both in much the same musical vein. I hadn't previously realised that Rick Wakeman played the piano on 'Morning has Broken', but in retrospect the piano noodlings are so obviously from the same hands that played 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII'.
There's plenty of evidence of Cat's religious uncertainty and pining, mixed in with some romantic soul-searching too. This may have been an album originally destined for 1970s UK bedsit-land, and today it remains a highly attractive, tuneful recording from a troubled artist that can equally be taken as summer's day entertainment.
Free Music Review: A Timeless Sixties Masterpiece!
Hit: 5 Stars
Whoops! Yeah, I know. How can anyone still favor the music from someone whose own recent public pronouncements belie the dreamy humanism and tolerance of the lyrics in these songs? Still, after thirty years of listening to this album, it still puzzles me that anyone capable of creating such beautiful lyrics, enchanting melodies, and memorable arrangements could now be so rigid and intolerant of others. Go figure. Yet, I have to admit that the music remains, folks, a monument to late sixties-early seventies consciousness, a pillar to the edifice of the whole notion that we could change the world and make it a better, more tolerant, and more humane place to live in. All the music here is wonderful, and I can listen to the album without missing a lovely beat, from "The Wind" to the magical and breath-taking "Peace Train". Even the cover art by Cat himself is an enchanting reminder of the kind of soft pop sentimentalism that one expects from a gentle soul such as is portrayed here. My own personal favorites are "Rubylove" with its Greek choral overtones and instruments (Stevens is an English-born son of Greek ethnic parents), the soft yet soaring "Morning Has Broken", a song I have never heard a harsh word against, and of course, "Moonshadow", another in a series of similar unforgettable Cat Steven's catchy musical confections. There is simply no getting around how uniquely talented he was. Like "Tea For The Tillerman" before it, this terrific album is a reminder that sometimes art rises above the level of its all too human creator. Enjoy!Free Music Review: classis
Hit: 5 Stars
If you wonder why I gave Teaser And The Firecat classic status, I am asking myself the same question.
The album has two types of tracks: ballads like "If I Laugh," and the piano based "Morning Is Broken," and more fleshed out and driven pieces like "Peace Train," and "Ruby Love," where Stevens adds a bouzouki.
Today, some of the softer, "sensitive" pieces seem over-earnest and dated, but when Steven's adds texture, such as the hand claps and backup vocals on "Peace Train," the weight helps drive the music and makes it more enjoyable.
Steven's always had great back up bands--Brian Augers, for example, wound up on a great album called Sweet Thursday which got a lot of FM airplay--and the more he used these musicians, the better the music got. Foreigner, where he started using pros like Bernard "Pretty" Purdie and Phil Upchurch may be Steven's apex.
So why a classic? I can't be objective, but that terrific cover art, done by Stevens, is stamped in my head: crawling around my parents General Electric wood cabinet stereo in 1971 diapers, raiding the contents, playing this and staring at the brown A&M label. Forget toys. I wanted to watch vinyl spin.
20,000 records and this may have been my first.
Free Music Review: A Genre Defining Album
Hit: 5 Stars
"Teaser And The Firecat" is an album of its time, but it also defines the time perfectly. Which also means that, over 30 years later, it still sounds as immediate as it did in 1971. You can already see how Cat was searching for his fulfillment. "I listen to the wind in my soul," he proclaims at the beginning of the album. From there, "Teaser" keeps exploring. Be it his Greek roots in "Rubylove," to adapting the hymn "Morning Has Broken" to the final plea to "live in bliss" during "Peace Train," Cat was attempting to give definition and resolution to a tumultuous world.
That didn't exclude a sense of playfulness. "Moonshadow" is almost a nursery rhyme in its verses. And even though "Rubylove" has a Greek verse, it is an unabashed love song. (Even Cat men have their needs, you know.) But Cat's real need here was expressive. On "Teaser And The Firecat," the crystalline musical mix of acoustic guitar, piano and vocal chorus defined a style of folk that was distinct to the seventies. The remaster of this album along with the rest of Cat's library, provides a richness and space to the music that was missing on the older CD's, a major plus here.
Along with artists like Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, Seals and Crofts and Jim Croce, Cat Stevens laid out a sound that many aspired to match. With "Teaser" (and the preceding "Tea For The Tillerman"), Cat Stevens found his true voice.
Free Music Review: Teaser and The Firecat
Hit: 5 Stars
I purchaed my first copy of "Teaser and The Firecat", as an LP back in 1971.
It was produced by Univesal Island Records and I used to play it on a what we used to call, a "radiogram' record player. Obviously this equipment was not up to the standard of today's systems, however, I can remember distinctly the great quality of the playback and I was always particularly impressed with the fact that you could actually hear the sound that was created by Cat Steven's fingers running down the strings. I always thought that this LP was one of the most technically perfect recordings that I had ever heard.
As a matter of fact my son now has the original copy of that LP and although it took a fair sort of "flogging" over the years it still sounds perfect.
Because of the more practical use of music systems today my son and I decided to purchase the CD version of this great album. With the remastering I am pleased to say that the playback is now even better than the original, which I always thought would be impossible.
I thouroughly commend this CD to anyone who is looking for the perfect sound with great compositions rendered by a first class artist. Don't deny yourself the pleasure.