Music Review: Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Roadsinger

By Steve Morley

Cat Stevens began his 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat with the words “I listen to the wind of my soul/Where I’ll end up only God really knows.” Stevens already understood that he was on a seeker’s path. But he couldn’t have dreamed that, a mere seven years later, it would mean shedding his successful musical persona to pursue the Muslim faith under the name Yusuf Islam. A decade ago, when he gave the blessing for a series of CD reissues, Islam started to undergo a process as mysterious as the one that took him away from Cat Stevens. Like a plant returning to its seed, Islam slowly reconnected with his body of work. His 2006 re-emergence, An Other Cup, proved that his peaceful, introspective vision was not incompatible with the one he’d begun as Cat Stevens more than three decades prior. His recently released Roadsinger—subtitled To Warm You Through the Night—is the second collection of music to join Islam’s faith journey-in-progress with the creative spirit of his Cat Stevens period.

Roadsinger is a low-key acoustic affair, graciously accommodating fans who wanted to hear the more intimate, folk-style elements of his classic work. In truth, it’s an appropriate sound for the 60-year-old singer, who has naturally evolved from the impetuous idealist of yore into a sage-like figure. Hope is evident, though it’s tempered by a settled sobriety on songs like “The Rain” and “World O’ Darkness,” which address the effects of evil. “Rain” is a modern-day take on the impending flood in the book of Genesis, with the protagonist breaking in midway to seek God’s help and guidance as others fall prey to fear. (“Tell me if I gotta build a boat to carry us to sea/ Tell me what the shape of it will be/ Tell me if it’s gonna be a home for every kind of beast/ Tell me who the lucky ones will be/ Tell me if we gotta build a world/ What that world will be/ If we’re gonna build it well enough for Thee.”)

The gently upbeat and childlike “Thinking ’Bout You,” which could pass for a non-secular Disney song, worshipfully affirms that all created things are drawn to God. (“Every burning comet that zooms, and angels, too/ Think about you—wouldn’t they do?/ Thinkin’ ’bout you, I could climb a mountain in the dark/ Listening to you, flowers dance in the park/ Whatever they say, whatever they do/ We’ll always love you.”) In a similar spirit, “All Kinds of Roses” embraces the diversity of God’s creation while avowing that devotion is owed only to the Creator. (“All kinds of faces, all kinds of faces/ All kinds of faces show me their love/ All kinds of lanterns, all kinds of lanterns/ All kinds of lanterns light up the dark/ But there’s only one God, only one God/ Has a place in my heart.”)

The narrative-style title track and the mildly George Harrison-esque “Welcome Home” are loosely autobiographical, though Islam alludes most pointedly to the full-circle nature of his odyssey on “Be What You Must,” which borrows its philosophical concept from author Eckhart Tolle and its piano intro from the 1972 Cat Stevens’ track “Sitting.” While that 37-year-old song speaks prophetically to Islam’s present reality in the closing line “you’re gonna wind up where you started from,” its 2009 counterpart explains the state of mind and heart necessary for such a transformation to occur.

While the longtime Cat Stevens fan might wish for something more robust, we’re lucky to have his music back in any form. Roadsinger is a thoughtfully-crafted reminder of that good fortune, even if the singer himself is a lot further down the road.  

Audio Clips

"Welcome Home"

"Thinking 'Bout You"

"World o' Darkness"

"The Rain"