Al Stewart
Year Of The Cat

45th Anniversary Box Set
(Cherry Red)
9/10
By Decibel Report

It was the album that finally established Al Stewart as an international artist by propelling him into the charts across all major territories. It was also the album that completed his transformation from folk troubadour to a soft rock songwriter of no little wit, wisdom and tremendous success on this recording of smartly observed vignettes.

In a period when Stewart got all his ducks in a well-drilled row and, with Alan Parsons producing Year Of The Cat, it left an indelible mark on his career. Furthermore, it became somewhat synonymous with Stewart’s name by unlocking the gateway to immense success stateside. Still occasionally played on the radio somewhere on this spinning globe all these forty-five years since its original release, the titular song cleverly transports the listener to an inner space of abstract daydreams to suspend the mundane realities of every day existence. In essence, it’s a masterpiece and the rest of this album’s songs and narratives follow hot on the heel of this thoroughbred song.

Resuming his production and engineering duties, having done so on Stewart’s previous album Modern Times, the sagacious Alan Parsons worked his sonic magic aided by the high quality of songwriting and musicianship on this recording. Interestingly, Parsons also produced/engineered John Miles’ Rebel album just prior to this recording and the epic similarities between Miles’ Music and Stewart’s The Year Of Cat sonic palette are of tasty comparable consideration. Furthermore, with Parsons having also recently worked with Cockney Rebel, most of the ‘Rebel musicians back up Stewart to stellar effect throughout this multi-layered seminal release.

Continuing the folk idiom of writing songs concerning historical figures, on the opening gambit Lord Grenville - a song about the Elizabeth explorer Sir Richard Grenville - Stewart nails an esoteric folk-rock level of sophistication; something which his old folky friends Fairport were striving to achieve at the time. Yet, it’s the Spanish infused music stylings of On The Border and Midas Shadow, elevated by Andrew Powell’s notable string arrangements, the Dylan-esque wistful charms of Sand In Your Shoe, the flights of fancy on Flying Sorcery and If It Doesn’t Come Natural, Leave It, and the dramatic penultimate track One Stage Before - acting as an aperitif to the title track’s eternal allure - which encapsulate Stewart’s growth spurt towards singer-songwriter major artist status.

In many ways, the title song became a long term blessing and a shorter-term curse in Stewart’s career arc. With the album shooting to number 5 in the US Billboard charts, becoming certified platinum in the process, his American record label saw a subsequent formula to furrow with rich arrangements incorporating saxophone breaks and solos all seemingly much to Stewart’s annoyance and eventual change of direction; leading him to take back control of his career at the expense of commercial considerations.

There’s a telling advert by Janus Records, exulting the platinum status of the album, showing Al Stewart, resplendent in a cream suit and expensive leather boots, reclining in a sumptuous chair with a glass of fine red wine to hand and, in the foreground, a Puma seemingly tame in the presence of this masterful artist who, for all appearances, looks like the cat who got the cream.

This whistle down the wind classic retains its aura of superbly arranged, crafted and produced songs and is now pleasingly bolstered by a previously unreleased live concert recorded in Seattle during the YOTC tour. This, in itself, is worth most of the admission fee of purchase alone as Al Stewart and his crack band wows this theatre audience with his erudite repartee and setlist of current and previous albums choice cuts.

Along with these sparkling audio jewels, remastered from the first-generation stereo master tapes, supervised by Alan Parsons, is a further gem in 5.1 surround sound of the album taken from the original first-generation multi-tracks and remastered by Alan Parsons for this box set.

The Three CD limited edition Deluxe box set contains all the above whilst the 2CD deluxe edition omits the 5.1 surround sound upgrade and has one CD highlights of the Seattle concert.

To update an old saying, there's many a good tune played on an old 45 and this 45th-anniversary revisitation takes this to whole new levels.