Teaser And The Firecat (Deluxe Edition)

キャット・スティーヴンスがアイランド・レコーズで発表した3作目にして通算5作目となる1971年の名盤『Teaser and The Firecat』の50周年リイシューが5種類のマルチ・フォーマットで登場!

2CD デラックス・エディション
CD 1:オリジナル収録の10曲。ユスフとそのエンジニアであるDavid Heftiが提供した英アイランド制作オリジナル・ステレオ・マスター・テープからの最新リマスターを収録。オリジナル・プロデューサーPaul Samwell-Smithの全面監修による、アビイ・ロード・スタジオ・リマスター
CD 2:レア曲/未発表音源収録(ライヴ、デモ、TV/ラジオ・パフォーマンス、シングルB面曲等)

■楽曲解説、歌詞、イラストを掲載した32ページ・ブックレット付

Even as a serious-minded singer/songwriter, Cat Stevens never stopped being a pop singer at heart, and with Teaser and the Firecat he reconciled his philosophical interests with his pop instincts. Basically, Teaser's songs came in two modes: gentle ballads that usually found Stevens and second guitarist Alun Davies playing delicate lines over sensitive love lyrics, and up-tempo numbers on which the guitarists strummed away and thundering drums played in stop-start rhythms. There were also more exotic styles, such as the Greek-styled "Rubylove," with its twin bouzoukis and a verse sung in Greek, and "Tuesday's Dead," with its Caribbean feel. Stevens seemed to have worked out some of his big questions, to the point of wanting to proselytize on songs like "Changes IV" and "Peace Train," both stirring tunes in which he urged social and spiritual improvement. Meanwhile, his love songs had become simpler and more plaintive. And while there had always been a charming, childlike quality to some of his lyrics, there were songs here that worked as nursery rhymes, and these were among the album's most memorable tracks and its biggest hits: "Moonshadow" and "Morning Has Broken," the latter adapted from a hymn with words by English author Eleanor Farjeon. The overall result was an album that was musically more interesting than ever, but lyrically dumbed-down. Stevens continued to look for satisfaction in romance, despite its disappointment, but he found more fulfillment in a still-unspecified religious pursuit that he was ready to tout to others. And they were at least nominally ready to listen: the album produced three hit singles and just missed topping the charts. Tea for the Tillerman may have been the more impressive effort, but Teaser and the Firecat was the Cat Stevens album that gave more surface pleasures to more people, which in pop music is the name of the game. ~ William Ruhlmann