Product Description

'An Other Cup' is the first pop release from Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) since converting to Islam and comes twenty eightyears after his 1978 release 'Back To Earth'. Produced by Rick Nowels (Dido, Rod Stewart) the album is a welcome returnto the classic singer-songwriter sound that earned Cat Stevens rave reviews in the sixties and seventies. The single 'Heaven/Where True Love Goes' is also included.

Track Listing

1. Midday (Avoid City After Dark)
2. Heaven/ Where True Love Goes
3. Maybe There's A World
4. One Day At A Time
5. When Butterflies Leave
6. In The End
7. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
8. I Think I See The Light
9. Whispers From A Spiritual Garden
10. The Beloved - Yusuf, Youssou N'Dour
11. Greenfields, Golden Sands
12. There Is Peace

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1711 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 44 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 the 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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Customer Reviews

In places as good as anything that went before.
I've owned An other cup for over a year now and I've listened to it countless times. The first 2 tracks are superb and are as good as anything he wrote in the 70s. A testament as to how good this album is and how it requires a lot of listens, is that my wife who had never heard of him before I bought this told me she "loves this album" when I played it again recently.

The cup doesn't quite overflow...
It's hard for any one who was so entranced by Cat Stevens back in the '70s (his music was playing when I met my future wife) to listen to this album with an objective viewpoint. We've all missed Cat Stevens these past 28 years - not just his music but the effortless simplicity of his performances. I have never stopped listening to his beautiful songs from "Tillerman" and "Firecat", so I was eager to hear this album when I found out recently that he'd returned to writing and recording. His recent BBC concert recording and the Imagine programme about him were indeed delightful and interesting.

That said, this album has to stand alone as a piece of work and in that it doesn't quite cut it. There are some lovely songs here; "Maybe there's a world", "In the end" and "The beloved" are lyrically and musically beautiful but the album as a whole leaves one feeling a bit as if there could have been more. With "Tillerman" and "Firecat" there is always that feeling of deep joy and satisfaction when they end - here it's more a feeling of "oh, that's it then?"

Don't get me wrong it's a good album but I hoped for a bit more from a musician of the quality that the old Cat had now combined with a man with the obvious spiritual maturity of the new Yusuf. A very good effort but can't quite give it 5 stars. I'd love to see him tour with both his old and new songs though.

Late Night Music At It's Best
I was a bit sceptical about this album at first....I had been a Cat Stevens fan from the 70's and absolutely love Tea for the Tillerman and the next few albums that followed and only thought I could be disappointed by a late-in-life album from a man who defined my generation and its problems but this album is just amazing. It's the product of a man who has come completely to terms with himself and the world around him but still cares enough to try to get the rest of us to see what he has come to realise.
The whole piece is best listened to of an evening when you have had that last cup of coffee, last glass of wine, last whisky (my personal tipple)......whatever turns you on......
It just oozes the class of a musician who has taken time out to realise what life is all about and has come back to spread the word...there is hope!
It would be folly for me to try and review this album track-by-track although if you listen to "There is Peace", this probably sums up the whole of the message this album is preaching but don't worry about the tracks, just get that last drink, press play and enjoy.....