Mona Bone Jakon only began Cat Stevens' comeback. Seven months later, he returned with Tea for the Tillerman, an album in the same chamber-group style, employing the same musicians and producer, but with a far more confident tone. Mona Bone Jakon had been full of references to death, but Tea for the Tillerman was not about dying; it was about living in the modern world while rejecting it in favor of spiritual fulfillment. It began with a statement of purpose, "Where Do the Children Play?," in which Stevens questioned the value of technology and progress. "Wild World" found the singer being dumped by a girl, but making the novel suggestion that she should stay with him because she was incapable of handling things without him. "Sad Lisa" might have been about the same girl after she tried and failed to make her way; now, she seemed depressed to the point of psychosis. The rest of the album veered between two themes: the conflict between the young and the old, and religion as an answer to life's questions. Tea for the Tillerman was the story of a young man's search for spiritual meaning in a soulless class society he found abhorrent. He hadn't yet reached his destination, but he was confident he was going in the right direction, traveling at his own, unhurried pace. The album's rejection of contemporary life and its yearning for something more struck a chord with listeners in an era in which traditional verities had been shaken. It didn't hurt, of course, that Stevens had lost none of his ability to craft a catchy pop melody; the album may have been full of angst, but it wasn't hard to sing along to. As a result, Tea for the Tillerman became a big seller and, for the second time in four years, its creator became a pop star.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Cat Stevens has returned and he’s serving more tea. Tea For The Tillerman 2 is, as the name suggests, the second version of his 1970 folk-rock classic, Tea For The Tillerman. The album was a bit of a hangover from the sixties. All the teenagers would spend their times up in their rooms trying to decipher the notes and play the songs on acoustic guitar as they flowed one after another in a river of instrumental elegance and profound disenchantment. It was a philosophical and politically charged album, a way of announcing that he was turning his back on the modern world in a quest for spirituality. A few years later Stevens converted to Islam, adopted the name Yusuf Islam and distanced himself from the world of pop music for almost 30 years. He returned to pop in the mid-2000s and is now celebrating the anniversary of his album, as Tea For The Tillerman is now 50 years old. And Cat Stevens is 72. Rather than re-release this old classic with some slight embellishments, the singer has given himself a makeover and re-recorded the whole thing. Joined by his guitarist and producer from the time as well as a handful of new musicians, Cat Yusuf recaptures the subtle and care-free sweetness of the original version but adds fullness and a slight punch that it sometimes lacked. The new versions are, at times, rather similar to the original versions (with the same string and choir arrangements), and at other times nothing like them (like on Longer Boats featuring rapper Brother Ali with its funky bridge), but their essence remains the same and they are certainly recognisable. Above all, Cat Stevens sings better than ever before – his voice hasn’t aged, and it’s no longer cast in the shadow of Bob Dylan as it was on the 1970 version of Tea For The Tillerman. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

The first in a promised cluster of mid-2018 releases from GOOD Music came from label president Pusha T, who followed up the compact King Push with this briefer EP-length set. Designated an album possibly for the strategic sake of preventing the release from being buried on the artist's streaming service profile pages, Daytona nonetheless warrants top billing. Kanye West grants taut, grimace-inducing beats, assisted infrequently by Mike Dean and Andrew Dawson, enabling Pusha to pack each one of the seven tracks with characteristically trenchant and terse rhymes. The lyrical focus is similarly laser-sharp -- primarily assertion of equally high regard in the drug trade and rap game with coded and transparent references to disposable income. Lines aimed at ghostwriter-employing competition appear as nonchalant swats but land like precise knockout blows. Respect paid to a newly freed peer is as vivid: "Angel on my shoulder, 'What should we do?'/Devil on the other, 'What would Meek do?'/Pop a wheelie, tell the judge to Akinyele/Middle fingers out the Ghost, screamin' 'Makaveli'." Throughout, Pusha's in typically percussive and phonetically advanced form with melodicism evidently eschewed as a potential distraction. It's a testament to the rapper's excellence that he can release a 20-minute album that withstands West's ostentatious art direction and shoddy guest verse.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Mona Bone Jakon only began Cat Stevens' comeback. Seven months later, he returned with Tea for the Tillerman, an album in the same chamber-group style, employing the same musicians and producer, but with a far more confident tone. Mona Bone Jakon had been full of references to death, but Tea for the Tillerman was not about dying; it was about living in the modern world while rejecting it in favor of spiritual fulfillment. It began with a statement of purpose, "Where Do the Children Play?," in which Stevens questioned the value of technology and progress. "Wild World" found the singer being dumped by a girl, but making the novel suggestion that she should stay with him because she was incapable of handling things without him. "Sad Lisa" might have been about the same girl after she tried and failed to make her way; now, she seemed depressed to the point of psychosis. The rest of the album veered between two themes: the conflict between the young and the old, and religion as an answer to life's questions. Tea for the Tillerman was the story of a young man's search for spiritual meaning in a soulless class society he found abhorrent. He hadn't yet reached his destination, but he was confident he was going in the right direction, traveling at his own, unhurried pace. The album's rejection of contemporary life and its yearning for something more struck a chord with listeners in an era in which traditional verities had been shaken. It didn't hurt, of course, that Stevens had lost none of his ability to craft a catchy pop melody; the album may have been full of angst, but it wasn't hard to sing along to. As a result, Tea for the Tillerman became a big seller and, for the second time in four years, its creator became a pop star.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Mona Bone Jakon only began Cat Stevens' comeback. Seven months later, he returned with Tea for the Tillerman, an album in the same chamber-group style, employing the same musicians and producer, but with a far more confident tone. Mona Bone Jakon had been full of references to death, but Tea for the Tillerman was not about dying; it was about living in the modern world while rejecting it in favor of spiritual fulfillment. It began with a statement of purpose, "Where Do the Children Play?," in which Stevens questioned the value of technology and progress. "Wild World" found the singer being dumped by a girl, but making the novel suggestion that she should stay with him because she was incapable of handling things without him. "Sad Lisa" might have been about the same girl after she tried and failed to make her way; now, she seemed depressed to the point of psychosis. The rest of the album veered between two themes: the conflict between the young and the old, and religion as an answer to life's questions. Tea for the Tillerman was the story of a young man's search for spiritual meaning in a soulless class society he found abhorrent. He hadn't yet reached his destination, but he was confident he was going in the right direction, traveling at his own, unhurried pace. The album's rejection of contemporary life and its yearning for something more struck a chord with listeners in an era in which traditional verities had been shaken. It didn't hurt, of course, that Stevens had lost none of his ability to craft a catchy pop melody; the album may have been full of angst, but it wasn't hard to sing along to. As a result, Tea for the Tillerman became a big seller and, for the second time in four years, its creator became a pop star.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

During his popular heyday in the 1970s, Cat Stevens did not release a live album, so it was some surprise that, nearly 30 years later, a live recording turned up on both DVD and CD. The performance captures Stevens on his 1976 American tour, just past his commercial peak. (Numbers, the album he was promoting, broke a string of six consecutive Top Ten albums in the U.S. by peaking at number 13 in Billboard.) Supported by the same musicians who had played on his records, including guitarist Alun Davies and keyboard player Jean Roussel, he had a repertoire of hits and other favorites, and the audience can be heard cheering enthusiastically, not only for the chart singles, but also for tracks from albums like Mona Bone Jakon, Tea for the Tillerman, and Teaser and the Firecat. Stevens performs faithful versions of eight of the 11 hit singles he had scored in the U.S. up to this point (omitting "Morning Has Broken," "Sitting," and "Ready"), interspersing them with equally familiar songs such as "Where Do the Children Play," "Tuesday's Dead," and "Father & Son." ("How Can I Tell You," another audience favorite, is missing from the DVD version of this concert, while the DVD boasts performances of "Miles from Nowhere" and "Ruins" not found on the CD.) For most of the show, Stevens says practically nothing, but toward the end he becomes much more talkative, saying of "Sad Lisa" that he may have been writing about himself rather than the woman of the title; admitting that his recent single "Two Fine People" is musically a rewrite of his earlier hit "Wild World"; and revealing that he actually wrote "Peace Train" on a train, although he was thinking of Alfred Hitchcock (and presumably, of the film Strangers on a Train) at the time. More such revelations would have been welcome, but as it is the album constitutes an excellent Stevens best-of.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Mona Bone Jakon only began Cat Stevens' comeback. Seven months later, he returned with Tea for the Tillerman, an album in the same chamber-group style, employing the same musicians and producer, but with a far more confident tone. Mona Bone Jakon had been full of references to death, but Tea for the Tillerman was not about dying; it was about living in the modern world while rejecting it in favor of spiritual fulfillment. It began with a statement of purpose, "Where Do the Children Play?," in which Stevens questioned the value of technology and progress. "Wild World" found the singer being dumped by a girl, but making the novel suggestion that she should stay with him because she was incapable of handling things without him. "Sad Lisa" might have been about the same girl after she tried and failed to make her way; now, she seemed depressed to the point of psychosis. The rest of the album veered between two themes: the conflict between the young and the old, and religion as an answer to life's questions. Tea for the Tillerman was the story of a young man's search for spiritual meaning in a soulless class society he found abhorrent. He hadn't yet reached his destination, but he was confident he was going in the right direction, traveling at his own, unhurried pace. The album's rejection of contemporary life and its yearning for something more struck a chord with listeners in an era in which traditional verities had been shaken. It didn't hurt, of course, that Stevens had lost none of his ability to craft a catchy pop melody; the album may have been full of angst, but it wasn't hard to sing along to. As a result, Tea for the Tillerman became a big seller and, for the second time in four years, its creator became a pop star.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

As the title indicates, Hard at Play is a return to the straight-ahead blues-inflected pop/rock that made Huey Lewis and the News superstars in the early '80s. While the material wasn't as consistently strong as Sports or Picture This, the band rocked with a renewed vigor and a handful of songs, including the anthemic hit "Couple Days Off," were as catchy as their older hits.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Joe South's debut LP was deleted almost too quickly for most listeners to find it, much less hear it. Now regarded as a country-soul classic (and, perhaps, the first country-soul album), Introspect anticipated the sound that Elvis Presley and Tony Joe White would both bring to the fore in the following year, except that it was even more ambitious than Presley or White, mixing and bending genres in new and exciting ways. Country, Eastern raga, gutbucket soul, and pop all brush up against each other within the same songs, some of which sound like Elvis singing with a backing band that included James Burton and Ravi Shankar. And thanks to South's use of various electronic devices in association with the considerable virtuosity in the playing, and his exceptional singing, this is still a bracing album four decades later. "Games People Play" was the hit off the record, and literally overwhelmed the album (which was pulled, reshuffled, and reissued as Games People Play the following year). But also worth hearing are "Birds of a Feather," "Rose Garden" (which would become a huge hit for Lynn Anderson three years later), "All My Hard Times," and "Mirror of Your Mind," along with most of what's here.© Bruce Eder /TiVo

Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa graduated to superstar status with his breakout 2011 album, Rolling Papers. That album and its ubiquitous single "Black & Yellow" took Wiz from mixtapes to the mainstream, and the tattoo-covered stoner MC found himself on magazine covers, on year-end Top Ten lists, and even starring alongside Snoop Dogg in a pretty forgettable hip-hop buddy comedy flick. Though technically his fourth studio album, the kind of overnight success that Rolling Papers experienced sets O.N.I.F.C. up for the dreaded sophomore slump, a disappointing second album rushed out on the heels of a brilliant debut. Khalifa doesn't turn in a dud here, but comes dangerously close. Within the first few minutes, several things are made forcefully clear: Wiz likes to smoke weed, he has more money now than he knows what to do with, and he's fairly confident that his make-it-look-easy pop-rap style has pretty much changed the game for good. A host of top-dollar producers, MCs, and vocalists are on board to back him up, too, with on-point production from ID Labs, Chris "Drumma Boy" Gholson, and Pharrell and guest spots by everyone from 2 Chainz to Three 6 Mafia's Juicy J. Production team Stargate returns to cultivate the huge beat of leadoff single "Work Hard, Play Hard," a minimal banger that attempts to revisit the fire of "Black & Yellow" but runs out of steam about three-quarters through the song. More interesting beats come in the lovestruck stereo-panned snares and crystalline R&B hooks of "Got Everything" and the Dilla-esque staggered funk of "No Limit." Without any easily recognizable hits to focus on, 17 tracks of Khalifa's midtempo delivery, absentmindedly repetitive weed references, and wealth bragging wear thin right away. The majority of the album blurs amicably through mediocre party-rap sounds and actually gets more interesting as it nears its last few tracks. The watery beat of "Remember You" swims in a druggy haze with Khalifa throwing down delay-effected verses in between whimpering choruses by the Weeknd, and album closer "Medicated" sounds more engaged than the majority of the album. Still having a hard time reaching the anthemic heights of the singles from Rolling Papers, O.N.I.F.C. lands somewhere between the growing pains of an artist forced to develop more quickly than he's ready to and material simply less inspired than the hungrier, more excited sounds that came before.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

Cat Stevens has returned and he’s serving more tea. Tea For The Tillerman 2 is, as the name suggests, the second version of his 1970 folk-rock classic, Tea For The Tillerman. The album was a bit of a hangover from the sixties. All the teenagers would spend their times up in their rooms trying to decipher the notes and play the songs on acoustic guitar as they flowed one after another in a river of instrumental elegance and profound disenchantment. It was a philosophical and politically charged album, a way of announcing that he was turning his back on the modern world in a quest for spirituality. A few years later Stevens converted to Islam, adopted the name Yusuf Islam and distanced himself from the world of pop music for almost 30 years. He returned to pop in the mid-2000s and is now celebrating the anniversary of his album, as Tea For The Tillerman is now 50 years old. And Cat Stevens is 72. Rather than re-release this old classic with some slight embellishments, the singer has given himself a makeover and re-recorded the whole thing. Joined by his guitarist and producer from the time as well as a handful of new musicians, Cat Yusuf recaptures the subtle and care-free sweetness of the original version but adds fullness and a slight punch that it sometimes lacked. The new versions are, at times, rather similar to the original versions (with the same string and choir arrangements), and at other times nothing like them (like on Longer Boats featuring rapper Brother Ali with its funky bridge), but their essence remains the same and they are certainly recognisable. Above all, Cat Stevens sings better than ever before – his voice hasn’t aged, and it’s no longer cast in the shadow of Bob Dylan as it was on the 1970 version of Tea For The Tillerman. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

With 31 tracks selected by Joan as a Police Woman (Joan Wasser) herself and by her manager Tom Rose, as well as a bonus live CD, the label Pias were thinking big when celebrating 15 years of activity for the woman who cut her teeth with Antony and the Johnsons and Jeff Buckley. The first part respects a scrupulous chronological order, beginning with 7 tracks taken from her first opus, Real Life (2006). Right from these first steps, the singer-songwriter’s style was already in place, with a mixture of deep emotion and sweet energy, perfectly embodied in a song like Christobel. 5 tracks from To Survive (2008) follow, starting with Honor Wishes, a song celebrating the marriage of the strange with sensuality, in which a simultaneously jazzy, shaky and timid piano blends with the heavenly choirs of the great David Sylvian. This instrument is also present in the fanfare of To America (featuring Rufus Wainwright).In the second part of this anthology, this perfect chronology is slightly interrupted by the presence of a Prince cover (Kiss) as well as the previously unpublished What a World: Joan observes a painful world where joy is nevertheless inexplicably present. Not far from this kind of little surprise, we will of course find highlights from her 2010s period, in which this violinist devotes more time to musical experimentation (The Magic, Holy City). Above all, what emerges from this splendid collection of songs is Joan Wassner’s talent in the art of songwriting, demonstrating an impeccable know-how in which the melodic line includes orchestral audacity. Inventiveness, beauty, clarity and simplicity: these 31 songs clearly illustrate the American artist’s idea (utopian or not) at the heart of her second album. “I am convinced that by creating beauty within and around yourself, you give yourself the chance to live in a better world.” © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz