Music Reviews

An Other Cup Ya/Atlantic Music ••• Sound ••••

This long-promised comeback sounds exactly like what it is: the follow-up to 1978's Back to Earth, the last album Yusuf recorded when he was still Cat Stevens. That album wasn't quite vintage Cat, and An Other Cup isn't either, but its warmth and modesty sound more welcome nowadays. If anything, this gentle and devotional album tries too hard to draw back old fans. Three rerecorded '70s songs are just too many on an 11-song disc - especially since one of the remakes, "I Think I See the Light," is the best number here. ("There Is Peace," a bonus cut on the special edition, is a strong song that rightly belongs on the album.) The cushy production with Rick Nowels likewise leaves you missing the crystalline Paul Samwell-Smith sound of old.

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