Roadsinger

Annat ljudformat.

Nära nyskick. CD/DVD, Island 2705149 (2009 / 2009). Just det, Yusuf är ingen annan än den gamla popstjärnan Cat Stevens som hoppade av sin karriär, konverterade till Islam och drog sig undan världen. Han har sedermera återkommit, i just skepnad av Yusuf och detta snygga album (en inbunden bok) innehåller både en CD och en DVD, samt alla texter till sångerna. "... 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....The album fits like a glove onto Stevens' former identity, with some songs as gloriously rich and beautiful as anything he's ever written....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, allmusic.com) Begagnad .