Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens Back To Earth 180g LP

In 1978, after having sold millions of records and becoming one of the biggest international artists of the 1970s, Cat Stevens decided to step out of the rock star spotlight and walk away. That year, he was to release his final album under that name. The appropriately-titled Back To Earth was his parting gift: an album that saw the London-born singer saying farewell to his fans, while obliquely explaining his decision to quit in songs such as "Last Love Song" and "Just Another Night". "What's going on behind the appearance of stardom or the stage itself can be a completely different world," he says now, "and that's what it was a lot of the time. I kept my sanity and I kept my eyes open."

Back To Earth was indeed a remarkable return to form, reuniting Stevens with Paul Samwell-Smith, the producer of his landmark, multi-platinum albums Tea For The Tillerman (1970) and Teaser And The Firecat (1971), as well as continuing his creative partnership with long-time guitarist Alun Davies. 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. "There was this other side of me which was the sort of musical composer," he remembers. "I loved musicals and I was surrounded by them where I lived. So, I had Bernstein in my blood." Long overdue for re-evaluation, Back To Earth is a brilliant and fascinating album capturing Yusuf/Cat Stevens at a defining point in his life.

The title of Cat Stevens' 11th studio album serves as a balm to any of his many fans that were turned off by the more electronic tones of his previous record Izitso while also reflecting the grounding he had found by converting to Islam. In fact, this would be the last thing Stevens recorded until 2006's An Other Cup. That spiritual yearning informs many of the songs found here, like the lovely 'Daytime' and the pleading lyrics of 'Father.' The rest of the album plays like Stevens is looking to shake off his secular crutches like drugs ('Bad Brakes') and the recording industry ('Just Another Night'). This remastered edition of the album, which features some of his most poignant and tightly-knit arrangements, works to reignite the ache that so many of his friends felt for nearly two decades as they waited to hear new music from Stevens, or as he's known these days Yusuf Islam. He left behind this sparkling jewel that hasn't lost a bit of its shine in over 40 years.