Al Stewart: Year Of The Cat (RCA)
1975, the year of the cat, the year when the Vietnam War ended.
One’s first encounter with the album is immensely enjoyable. The music moves on silky paws through the speakers, it is hazy, melancholy and very tastefully arranged. Each instrument works as a beautifying element around the soft, muted beat. There is a lot of everything: Keyboards, strings, saxophones, guitars, voices.
The music is so luscious it could be eaten – the tracks arranged as delicious bites in a chocolate box -, and tailored to Stewart’s sympathetic voice miked up so close it caresses your eardrums. Equally close is the acoustic guitar, fingers plucking, notes rolling as if the player was sitting right next to you in your living room.
The soft and delicious sounding rhythm section is a perfect base for the soloists who’s contributions flicker and shine like moonbeams on still water, a fiddle, a saxophone, an acoustic guitar. Gorgous. And at the same time – triggered by the dark undercurrents of the music – obsessive.
First time I heard the album I was hooked long before side 1 was finished, and I hadn’t even heard the majestic title track yet.
The lyrics don’t give away too much during the first couple of spins, but they touch the subconscious and create ripples of recognition in your mind. Words and expressions sound familiar, they are enigmatic, but they apply to you. And as you dig deeper into the lyrics their mysteries gradually start making sense.
Many of the songs are based on actual historical events. The British naval hero Sir Richard Grenville’s dark voyage to perdition in 1591; the female pilot Amy Johnson’s journey towards her fate in 1941. The whole album has an aura of disruption, restlessness, danger and conflict, but wrapped in a velvet blanket of starry nights.
There are songs about finding oneself in unfamiliar, hostile surroundings, an intruder, surrounded by danger. There are also songs about heroism, sacrifice and longing. And everything, every word, every note played is so immaculately interwoven and bittersweet that it tickles your soul. You’ll want to shed tears of gratitude when you hear the disc.
All roads lead to and culminate in the redemptive title track, one of the most beautiful and soothing recordings from the 70s. The sweet, hypnotical instrumental intro is more than one minute long and create almost unbearable expectations as it picks up speed. When Al Stewart finally opens his mouth he takes you right into the movie “Casablanca”:
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Do not bother asking for explanations
She’ll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat
Stage set and you are caught just as that song’s protagonist is. There is no way out – neither for Bogart nor you. Or to quote the album’s opening track, “Lord Grenville”:
“We’re on our way to nowhere now” – and if that isn’t bad enough: “We will not be back again”.
Iirrevocable sense of doom wrapped in exhilarated melancholy. That’s “Year of the Cat” for you – both the album and the song.
Al Stewart would go on to make great albums after this, and he makes them still. But “Year Of The Cat” is more than great, it is destilled perfection.
Released July 1976
Produced by Alan Parsons
Cover design: Hipgnosis
All tracks composed by Al Stewart, except where indicated.
Side 1
1.”Lord Grenville” – 5:00
2.”On the Border” – 3:22
3.”Midas Shadow” – 3:08
4.”Sand in Your Shoes” – 3:02
5.”If it Doesn’t Come Naturally, Leave It” – 4:28
Side 2
1.”Flying Sorcery” – 4:20
2.”Broadway Hotel” – 3:55
3.”One Stage Before” – 4:39
4.”Year of the Cat” (Stewart, Peter Wood) – 6:40
Personnel
Al Stewart – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Peter White – guitar, keyboards
John Perry – background vocals
Tim Renwick – guitar
Andrew Powell – string arrangements
Bobby Bruce – violin
Marion Driscoll – percussion
Stuart Elliott – drum, percussion
George Ford – bass
Phil Kenzie – alto saxophone
Don Lobster – keyboards
David Pack – background vocals
Tony Rivers – background vocals
Graham Smith – harmonica
Peter Wood – keyboards
First published in Pattaya Mail on August 1, 2013
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