Yusuf/Cat Stevens – Back To Earth (RSD 2025) (lp)

Beschrijving

Remastered at Abbey Road Studios, originally released in 1978. In 1978, after having sold millions of records and become one of the biggest international artists of the 1970s, Cat Stevens formally became a Muslim and adopted the name Yusuf. He decided to step out of the rock star spotlight and walk away. That year, he was to release his final album under his former name. The appropriately-titled ‘Back To Earth’ was his parting gift. Musically, the album was a blend of the acoustic balladeering and spiritually-questing style that had made the singer a worldwide star, along with more distant echoes of his years growing up as Steven Demetre Georgiou in London’s West End. Tracks such as ‘New York Times’ and ‘Randy’ recalled the influence upon him of the UK capital’s theatre land, and – since parts of the album had been recorded in New York City – Broadway. ‘Back To Earth’ is a brilliant and fascinating album capturing Yusuf/Cat Stevens at a defining point in his life.