#Cat Stevens #folk rock #pop rock #album rock #singer-songwriter #1970s
Catch Bull At Four is a masterpiece of artistic creativity that saw Cat Stevens at the peak of his powers taking his insightful and introspective songwriting into a bold new direction. He was beginning to lean into his love of R&B, Soul, and even musical theatre with stunning results. Sonically, the album is bigger than the previous three records, introducing a broader array of instrumentation, backing vocals, and lush, multi-layered arrangements. Cat’s trademark impassioned vocals and percussive guitar style is combined with the sound of a new fuller backing band featuring Gerry Conway on drums, Jean Roussel on keys, and Alan James on bass, alongside the ever present force of Alun Davies on guitar. This heavier musical ensemble allowed the artist to inject a new level of drama into his work as is displayed on songs such as ‘Can’t Keep It In’, ‘18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare)’ and ‘Freezing Steel’. Even tracks such as the much loved ‘Sitting’ and ‘Angelsea’, that bare the hallmarks of songs from the Tillerman and Teaser albums, have a previously unheard intensity that is deeply hypnotic and entirely compelling.
Although Catch Bull At Four represents a progression beyond the classic Cat Stevens acoustic sound, thematically it is unmistakably a continuation of his earlier work. ‘O Caritas’ and ‘Ruins’ are both rooted in the prescient environmental and societal concerns found throughout his previous albums stretching back into the late 1960s. Similarly, ‘Sweet Scarlet’ and ‘Silent Sunlight’ emanate from the same sensitivity that informed many of his most beloved songs and that had already garnered so much profound devotion from legions of fans worldwide. And yet it is ‘Boy With The Moon And Star On His Head’, arguably the album’s crown jewel, that at once seems the most familiar song while simultaneously breaking new ground in terms of timeless folk storytelling. The song’s mystical narrative of a man’s transgression on his wedding day that results in a blessed child that grows into a wise sage who is revered by people from far and wide, feels as though it belongs in a collection of the world’s greatest epic poems or among the sagas and legends of a time now lost to history. This song, perhaps above all others, is a testament to Cat Stevens’ deep and transcendent spiritual awareness. From: https://catstevens.com/catch-bull-at-four-50th-anniversary-remaster/
