Yusuf - An Other Cup
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Music CD Cover
Artist: YusufEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-11-14
Music Label: Atlantic
Soundtracks:
- Midday
- Heaven/Where True Love Goes
- Maybe There's A World
- One Day At A Time
- when Butterflies Leave
- In The End
- Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
- I Think I See The Light
- Whispers From A Spiritual Garden
- The Beloved
- Green Fields, Golden Sands
Free Music Notes for An Other Cup
Free Music Review: The Cat came back...he just couldn't stay away.
Hit: 5 Stars
There's no doubt in my mind that the man has gotten older--a listen to his voice shows the roughness to be expected of a man pushing 60, and even without hearing the songs, he has plenty of grey in his beard. But it's a real pleasure to see him back with us again.
I'm just 38 years old, but I knew of Cat Stevens' music from an early age; my father had cassettes of Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat when I was a child. I even had the picture book Cat created from the artwork on Teaser. I kept up with the music as I grew up and went off to college, bought it on CD before it was properly remastered, and watched in pain as Cat/Yusuf was often punished for his beliefs (the whole affair of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and Yusuf's affirmation of the Qur'an's stating that blasphemy [Rushdie's alleged crime] merited death, although Yusuf never said he himself supported this; the deportation from this country just a few years ago due to mistaken identity), hoping that this man whose music I loved and who seemed to me to be as pleasant and engaging now as he had ever been would, indeed, bring his music back to us again.
And wonder of wonders, he has! An Other Cup may not quite match up to Tea, Teaser, Catch Bull at Four or other albums, but for the man that Yusuf Islam is now, it's more than sufficient. "Midday (Avoid City After Dark)" and "Heaven/Where True Love Goes" are a most welcome return to form--it would be fair to say he never lost form--while "When Butterflies Leave" and "Whispers From a Spiritual Garden" represent something Cat never did in all of his recording career from 1966-78; spoken-word recordings. And the cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is inspired, if not quite what the song really requires; it seems to be Yusuf's plea to the world at large, especially the non-Muslim section (80% of the world as of this writing), to hear him and to take time to know his mind.
Notably, he revisits old territory--the re-recording of "I Think I See the Light," which made its first appearance on his 1970 album Mona Bone Jakon, casts the old song in a new light; perhaps Yusuf coming to terms with his old Cat self? And the closing track, "Greenfields, Golden Sands," was written in 1968 but left unrecorded until now, and its wish for simplicity is as poignant now as it would have been 38 years ago. (After all, didn't Cat wish for something similar on "Peace Train," a song he has recently revisited in live performances of the last 3-4 years?)
He's back, folks, and I, for one, hope he'll stick around. Thank you so much, Yusuf. You've been missed.
An Other Cup Poster
Yusuf's (formerly Cat Stevens) first album of modern pop songs since 1978's Back to Earth. On his return to music, Yusuf says "I feel right about making music and singing about life in this fragile world again. It is important for me to help bridge the cultural gaps others are sometimes frightened to cross." More Yusuf
 The Very Best of Cat Stevens |  Majikat |  Mona Bone Jakon |
 Tea for the Tillerman |  Teaser and the Firecat |  Catch Bull at Four |
Three decades after decisively trading fame and his superstar moniker for the spiritual devotion for which his restless '70s songs seemed a perpetual quest, the singer-songwriter born Steven Demetre Georgiou has successfully resurrected Cat Stevens's muse, if not his persona. The musician whose dedicated embrace of Islam embroiled him in controversy frequently sings its praises on An Other Cup, both boldly (the Prophet-lionizing "The Beloved") and with delicate reflection ("Whispers from a Spiritual Garden" reworks Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi.) Given the political and religious misconceptions that have often plagued him, he's mused for years that his theme song should be Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"; here Yusuf makes good on the promise, conjuring a cover steeped in brooding elegance with the assistance of Madonna/Dido/Rod Stewart producer Rick Nowells.Yet, as "Heaven/Where True Love Goes" attests, the musician remains as masterfully adept at blurring distinctions between spiritual and romantic ecstasies as he is at evoking his trademark idealism in the lilting harmonies of "Maybe There's a World." Fans of his vintage catalog will find intriguing riches outside the more spiritually focused works here, too, with the familiar idealism of the previously unrecorded 1968 song "Green Fields, Golden Sands" and muscular "I Think I See the Light" further evoking the glories of Cat past. The production leans towards the spare and shrewdly contemporary, whether casting the effusive opener "Midday" in Paul Simon's spirit of cross-cultural adventure, underscoring the melodic charms of "One Day at a Time," or suffusing "When Butterflies Leave" and his autobiographical cover of Simone with graceful, neo-classical strings. Considering the career time lapse, it's a remarkably strong effort, yet one inspired by a gentility and spiritual inquisitiveness that's comfortably familiar. --Jerry McCulley
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