I was fortunate enough to receive an early copy of Yusuf's new album "Roadsinger" and have been working on a review. However that review might not be as relevant now because they've just released a full preview of the album online!
Have a listen and let me know what you think. In my opinion the record takes a few listens to sink in, but I've found that I've enjoyed it more and more each time. It's his best work since the mid 1970's and I'm sure you're all going to love it!
Update: Looks to have been taken down.
Update 2: Back again.
NEW ALBUM “ROADSINGER” FROM YUSUF
(THE ARTIST KNOWN AS CAT STEVENS) READY FOR RELEASE MAY 5
SANTA MONICA, CA -- March 5, 2009 -- With his reintroduction to the pop world behind him, renowned singer-songwriter Yusuf (the artist known as Cat Stevens) is ready to once again strike up an intimate relationship with his audience. After retreating from the pop stage following classic ‘70s multi-platinum albums such as Tea For The Tillerman and Teaser And The Firecat and acclaimed hits such as “Wild World,” “Peace Train,” “Moonshadow,” “Morning Has Broken” and “Father And Son,” Yusuf returned in late 2006 with his first pop album in 28 years. Now a second album, Roadsinger (To Warm You Through The Night), is set to be released May 5, 2009 (UMe).
“I was absent from my audience for so long,” Yusuf says, “people thought another album would never come. The 2006 album, An Other Cup, was a surprise. With this new album, the distance is much less. I’m back to doing what I do best — painting pictures with music and storytelling on a very human, personal, intuitive level through lyrics and song, so I can help people feel good again. I guess in some ways the new album picks up where the Cat Stevens the public knows left off.”
The album, Roadsinger, was produced by the now singularly named Yusuf with help from Martin Terefe (James Morrison, Jason Mraz, Martha Wainwright), and recorded around the world. Guests include Morrison, Michelle Branch, and Holly Williams (granddaughter of Hank Williams, Sr.).
“The new album is a response to the way An Other Cup was received,” Yusuf explains. “Fans said they wanted to hear more of me with a guitar. So, this album is much more folk-tale oriented. Also, apart from one track, all of it was recorded live. I listened to a lot of’ ’70s L.A. music, such as Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, and it inspired me to go back into that intimate style of recording. The songs are somewhat autobiographical but abstract enough so everyone can relate to them and connect them to their own lives.”
The title track, “Roadsinger,” unfolds the tale of an outcast who revisits his old hometown; along the empty street a child peeks from behind a store window and gives an innocent smile out of the shadows of prejudice. “The theme of a journey has always been big with me,” says Yusuf. A journey that was unexpectedly cut short in 2004 was when Yusuf was flying from his London home to Washington, D.C., en route to a meeting with Dolly Parton, who had recorded “Peace Train” several years earlier and wanted Yusuf to play guitar on her cover of his “Where Do the Children Play.” The incident that made headlines was resolved in 2006 and Yusuf’s new song “Boots and Sand” resulted.
“There are plenty people who sing, but not enough who have walked far from their block,” he says. I embraced an unexpected spiritual path that was confusing for many (converting to Islam in 1977). “Sadly, I’m still often misunderstood. Some people want to put me into their own one-sided view, but I don’t fit those limitations. My world is still borderless and wide. The removal of conflict and establishment of peace has always been my global objective. It’s a shame that lot of people, including some Muslims, overlook the name Islam, which actually comes from the word ‘Peace’ in Arabic.”
The forthcoming album also showcases some songs from his upcoming musical “Moonshadow.” The story takes place on a planet of perpetual night where only the moon’s shine lights the darkness; it is about a boy’s meeting with his Moonshadow and the adventures they share in search for the a world of the sunlight and happiness. As well as having many new songs, the surrealistic musical, “Moonshadow” also weaves classic songs from his past, including ‘Morning Has Broken’, ‘Wild World’ and The First Cut Is The Deepest.” The show debuts in the UK in July.
Yusuf’s return to his guitar came about when his teenage artist-musician son, Muhammad (aka Yoriyos), brought one home again. One morning, Yusuf was alone in the lounge when he looked over and felt a draw of curiosity overtake him. He slowly picked it up. “I put my fingers on the fretboard to make a ‘C’ chord,” he remembers, “and surprised myself, ‘It’s still there!’ It felt right. So I started playing again.” On the forthcoming album, Yusuf even plays electric guitar on a couple of tracks, along with keyboards.
“This part of my career feels similar in one sense to when I began,” Yusuf reflects.
“I had to get past the songs on Mona Bone Jakon before I could move on to
Tea For The Tillerman, etc. This time around it was the same story: I laid the
groundwork with my debut album, An Other Cup, which inspired a great new
collection of songs and scribblings. I had quite a few in my back pocket and again
it was my son who sparked the next step. He said, ‘Isn’t it time to start recording
a new album?’ And it was.”
For one of music’s most extraordinary artists, the journey continues.
Ok, so I may not like his new website, but I sure am enjoying his return to music.
Dashing.com user "Beeswing" posted links to Yusuf's recent appearance on "Later With Jools Holland." There are three performances and an interview, all of which are wonderful. He has a full band with him, including long-time partner Alun Davies. It sure is great to see them together again. I can't embed the video here (it won't let me) so you'll have to click the links. It's worth it though, great stuff.
It's so nice to just be a fan during this time and not have to worry about running the website. I'm really grateful for the timing of it all.
It's no secret to anyone that I was not particularly impressed with the new catstevens.com. To paraphrase myself I said it was nothing more than an online brochure to promote the new album, and that the navigation was so annoying that after a couple visits everyone would hate it. What's more I felt that the content offering was so insignificant (when you could even find it) that there would be no reason to ever really go back to the site once you'd seen it once. In the interest of full disclosure, I said some other things too, which I now regret and later retracted. But having said all of that, now that the new site has been up for over a month, how do I feel about it?
I was right.
If I could have made a list of everything not to do when designing the new catstevens.com it would be a perfect description of what they actually did. I'm not joking. It's a slick online-brochure to promote album sales that is quickly annoying, hard to use, impossibly non-accessible, incredibly slow and devoid of any soul or community. What's more, it's not even a "web site." The entire thing is a single Flash .swf file, which appears to do some call-outs to display the news and other "dynamic" content. It's also 1.5 megabytes, which is unbelievably large. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like accessing the site for a dial-up modem user. Ouch!
So when I say it's "not even a web site" what do I mean? I think it's easiest to explain by giving an example. You see, contrary to what some "Mes Amis" would like to believe, I happen to like Yusuf and am a fan of his work. I would like to keep up-to-date on the latest news and am really curious about his touring plans, and how well the album sells. The obvious way to do that is to visit the site every so often and read the news. This is where the problem comes in.
I decided to time how long it took to load catstevens.com and click on the news link before I actually was able to see the latest stories. Admittedly this is totally unscientific, I just started and stopped a stop-watch, but I think it's fairly accurate.
It took over 17 seconds.
It's important to note that I already had the 1.5 megabyte Flash .swf file cached in my browser, so the 17 seconds doesn't include download time. It is only the amount of time it took for the "Loading" screen to finish, for me to click on News, for the animation to do it's thing and the stories to finally appear. Heaven forbid I clicked on "Sing" and read the news there. I didn't bother to time how long that would take.
So in fairness I decided to time how long it took to load the home page of dashing.com and begin reading the latest stories. I could have just as easily picked any "real" web site for this, but it just seemed to make sense to use dashing. So the results?
0.335 seconds.
Ok, so I rest my case.
This could all be mitigated somewhat of course if I simply bookmarked the "News" section on catstevens.com and went straight there. But you see there's that pesky problem of it not being a web site. You can't bookmark any pages, because it doesn't have any (save the home page itself). Web sites that employ Flash in that manner effectively break the very things that make the web the web. You can't bookmark them, you can't search them and they are unaccessible to blind or similarly disabled people. It gets worse when you factor in that there's no way to skip the annoying animations, and don't get me started on the sound effects.
Now, I really don't want to not like catstevens.com, honest. I wanted to love it. I had so hoped that it would be great. But unfortunately it just isn't.
I do want everyone to know, whether you love the new site or hate it, that I tried my very best to push them in the right direction. I was very clear about what I thought they should do and told them so. Obviously they didn't agree with me. I just wish that not agreeing with me didn't translate to waiting nearly half a minute to read the news.
P.S. Would you like your very own copy of the new catstevens.com? Since it's just a Flash file you can download and save it to your computer. Right (or control-click) here and choose save. Then take the saved Flash file and drop it in your browser window. Fun for the whole family!
P.P.S. I never tried this on Windows, but I assume it should work the same as on my Mac.
P.P.P.S. That link is to their site, not dashing.com. I'm not hosting that file, just pointing you to it.
P.P.P.P.S. This could go on forever.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Alright, that's enough! Stop it!
Ok, so I was browsing on YouTube tonight after Gutmann Bernd alerted me to a very cool clip of Cat Stevens and Alun Davies performing Katmandu from 1970, when I discovered something amazing. Our very own Alex Stassi, who submitted many cover songs to cs.com over the years has apparently continued his work. But he was taken it to a whole new dimension by performing his covers live and video taping them. I know that doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but he's colored his performance by wearing dark shades and faux islamic garb, all the while caressing a dust mop. That, my friends, is a big deal in my book.
Sadly he marked this video so it can't be embedded on a website. I can only imagine that he wants cold hard cash for that privilege. Perhaps I should collect donations? Until then, you'll have to go youtube to watch it.
This thing really kicks in around 2:10, so feel free to fast forward to the good part. Not that it isn't all good, mind you, but I know a lot of you are impatient and would rather be swearing at each other in the forums instead.Oh, and make sure to check out the Katmandu clip. It's a great performance, and it's pretty funny watching Alun. He doesn't play on the song so he just nods his head a lot while smoking a cigarette. Also not to be missed are Cat's falsetto bits near the end.