YUSUF OFFERS 'AN OTHER CUP'

11.15.06

Ya/Atlantic has announced the release of AN OTHER CUP, the long-anticipated new album from Yusuf. This marks the first collection of modern pop songs in 28 years from the legendary British singer/songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens. The album features the first single, 'Heaven/Where True Love Goes.' Click here to preview music from the new album.

AN OTHER CUP arrives in stores this week amidst a flurry of critical acclaim. Writing in The New York Daily News, Jim Farber lauds the album?s 'gorgeous melodies, shimmering arrangements and thoughtful vocals,' going on to conclude, 'How great to hear this sound coming back so profoundly after such a long pause.' The Los Angeles Times? Ann Powers calls AN OTHER CUP an 'exquisitely orchestrated' album that brings back 'that vigorous, ruddy-cheeked sound,' while pondering, 'Can (Yusuf) recapture the welcoming seeker?s voice he plied so well in nonsectarian hymns such as ?Morning Has Broken??  The answer gently conveyed here is yes? Such vulnerability brings people together, whatever they believe.'
 
'The music picks up where Cat Stevens (born Steven Georgiou) left off,' says Jon Pareles in the New York Times. '(Yusuf?s) voice is a mellowed but recognizable version of his temperate baritone. The instruments, in tracks featuring his 1970s sidemen, are largely acoustic, and unlike most 21st-century pop productions, the music has natural dynamics, growing genuinely softer and louder. Many of the songs have the rhythmic springiness - in his vocal phrases or the lilt of the band - that was the secret of hits like ?Wild World.? Elsewhere, Billboard hailed the album as 'uplifting enough to satisfy even a 30-year thirst,' while in Yusuf?s native England, the Guardian?s Mat Snow praised the album as 'forty-four minutes of welcome surprise.'

AN OTHER CUP - the release of which coincides with the 40th anniversary of Cat Stevens?s first hit record, 'I Love My Dog' - sees Yusuf joined in the studio by his longtime collaborator, guitarist Alun Davies, as well as such renowned guests as bassist Danny Thompson and the legendary Senegalese singer, Youssou N?Dour.  Recorded in London, Los Angeles, Istanbul, and Johannesburg, the album was produced by Yusuf and Rick Nowels (known for his work with a diversity of artists, including Madonna, Nelly Furtado, Dido, and Santana). All the songs were penned by Yusuf, with the exception of a cover of the Nina Simone/Animals classic, 'Don?t Let Me Be Misunderstood.'

'I feel right about making music and singing about life in this fragile world again,' Yusuf says of his return to the pop music world. 'It is important for me to be able to help bridge the cultural gaps others are sometimes frightened to cross.'

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