Cat Stevens - Matthew & Son/New Masters vinyl re-issues
Cat Stevens
Matthew & Son
New Masters
(UMC)
8/10
By Decibel Report - Mar 27, 2020
Not unlike his feline namesake, in an interrupted musical career since this first release, the songs that Cat Stevens recorded in his heyday continues to fall gracefully on its assured feet revealing an artist who left a massive musical footprint in the sands of modern musical time in his wake.
Although having recorded recent albums and playing concerts - the latest of which is a star turn at The Music For The Marsden charity event at The London O2 Arena - in various countries, it’s Steven Demetre Georgiou’s original incarnation as Cat Stevens who everybody identifies with and this inaugural release set him on his singular musical path.
As a folk-some Soho minstrel absorbing the then developing London folk scene, from his room above his parent's West End Cafe, Stevens was propitiously placed to air his troubadour skills in London’s legendary folk clubs.
Famous now for its big-beat, orchestrally arranged title track, Matthew & Son's narrative tale of the poor wage humdrum working life still resonates down the years producing a hit song that chased and overtook the album into the Top 10.
This de-mixed vinyl release plucks out the original vocal and bass recorded tracks and digitally enhances their presence. And the superb quality of this audio adjusted album benefits the listening experience immeasurably as Stevens' developing vocal style becomes even more instantly recognisable.
While being moulded by Deram into an orchestral crooner in the style of Scott Walker, even going out on tour with Jimi Hendrix, Stevens' indomitable stubbornness to forge his own path on follow up release New Masters is much more the primer for his subsequent Platinum selling album releases.
New Masters is the album which gave the world The First Cut Is The Deepest a milestone track that Stevens then sold on to PP Arnold - a song similar in timeless stature to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - and demonstrates Stevens' growing confidence in his vocal delivery which fully emerges on this de-mixed waxing.
Further tracks Northern Wind reveals the wild and brittle nature of Cat's expanding voice coupled with his softer tones on the Blackness Of The Night. Album opener Kitty demonstrates the Janus like tug-of-war between artist and record label/producer on an album which stands the test of time as a pivotal musical document of an artist about to go supernova to eventually disappear into a lengthy self-imposed musical wilderness.
Matthew & Son and New Masters will be reissued on vinyl on 27th March 2020 via Universal Music Catalogue.
Matthew & Son Tracklisting:
Side A
Matthew & Son
I Love My Dog
Here Comes My Baby
Bring Another Bottle Baby
Portobello Road
I've Found A Love
I See A Road
Side B
Baby Get Your Head Screwed On
Granny
When I Speak To The Flowers
The Tramp
Come On And Dance
Hummingbird
Lady
New Masters Tracklisting:
Side A
Kitty
I’m So Sleepy
Northern Wind
The Laughing Apple
Smash Your Heart
Moonstone
Sida B
The First Cut Is The Deepest
I’m Good Be King
Ceylon City
Blackness Of The Night
Come On Baby (Shift That Log)
I Love Them All
Matthew & Son and New Masters will be reissued on vinyl on 27th March 2020 via Universal Music Catalogue. Pre-order below:
New Masters: https://CatStevens.lnk.to/NewMasters
Matthew & Son: https://CatStevens.lnk.to/MatthewandSon
Both: https://CatStevens.lnk.to/DeramYears
About De-Mixing:
‘De-mixed’ with enhanced vocals at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios, both albums will be available on 180-gram vinyl with fully restored artwork.
Featuring newly enhanced vocals, Abbey Road Studios has used their revolutionary ‘Demix’ software on the original master tapes to reinvigorate and breathe new life into both albums. Where vocals have always been buried by the subsequent orchestral backing track, ‘Demixing’ enables the studio to digitally extract and enhance the original vocals to create a superior listening experience for Cat Stevens fans. As well as vocals, ‘Demixing’ has also considerably helped amplify the bass, something that was commonly strenuous to achieve with mixes in the late 1960s.
