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Dave Thompson
Box Set
Universal (314 585 285 2)
Cat Stevens' recent re-emergence as a media- (if not musically) friendly personality has seen an altogether unexpected rejuvenation of interest in his back catalog. Between 1971-75, after all, Stevens ranked among the most sainted singer/songwriters in that entire genre and did so with such conviction that, by the time the decade reached its mid-point, his down-fall wasn't simply inevitable, it was imperative.
The bard behind a stream of cocktail party confessionals, the sensitive soul who uncorked the very wellspring of human consciousness, Stevens was so intrinsically bound up within that peculiar zeitgeist that defined early '70s America that neither death nor retirement could have liberated him. In terms of prolonging his career, his conversion to Islam probably wasn't up there with his best-ever ideas. But in terms of personal survival, it was the smartest thing he ever did.
Box Set does not address such weighty issues, of course. Just one disc, the fourth, traces Stevens' activities from 1975 on; just two songs post-date his disappearance...