Cat's first album for Island Records, a collection of guitar or piano songs with endearingly simple arrangements, opens with the beautiful, evocative ballad Lady D'Arbanville, a hit in summer 1970

Probably the ultimate Cat Stevens album - his very individual writing and performing style is perfected here, and every song is first-rate. Contains several hits, but every other song is memorable too

Recorded 1973 in Jamaica with a new band, this is quite a departure from the concise songs of earlier albums. The ambitious Foreigner Suite takes up all the first half; The Hurt was a minor summer hit

A little known but interesting album loosely based around a mythical world of numbers. The first half in particular is very good, though towards the end the songs become less memorable

Stevens' last album before retiring from music; the sound is polished but many of the songs are unmemorable. He sounds tired and uninspired, and his heart no longer seems to be in it

A very comprehensive remastered collection, covering all Cat's best known songs, including three hits from the late 60s and two rare tracks. Highly recommended, unless you have all the original albums

A superbly presented collection of excellent tracks and many rarities. The book is beautifully designed, but a slight disappointment is that several more tracks could have been fitted on to the 4CDs