Cat Seat Headrest

Did the world need a rock opera from Car Seat Headrest? Maybe not, but it's a big swing with some glorious payoffs. Set on a fictional college campus, The Scholars serves up sketches of students and staff as they engage in an intellectual and spiritual war between defenders of canonical texts and next-gen rebels ready to torch tradition. Among the characters are "doubt-filled" playwright Beolco and Devereaux, raised in a conservative religion and now seeking a higher power. ("Pull me out of the fire/ Tell me you love me/ And throw me back in," go the lyrics of lush "Devereaux.") There are thinly veiled similarities to the life of singer Will Toledo, who founded Car Seat Headrest as a solo project 15 years ago and whose musical self-explorations have explored queerness, gender identity and even furry fandom.

On March 28th-30th 2022, Car Seat Headrest played three consecutive sold out nights at Brooklyn Steel in New York. An air of celebration, community and showmanship was present, made all the more palpable as the shows were far from a certainty - they took place amidst a year which saw the band having to postpone or cancel a large swath of their North American tour dates due to ongoing health issues.

Car Seat Headrest Fans werden verzückt sein, zu hören, dass Will Toledos 2011er Bandcamp-Meisterwerk Twin Fantasy eine Neubearbeitung erfahren hat. Toledo wusste immer, dass er mit diesen Songs noch nicht fertig war. Damals mit 19 hatte er die Songs auf einem billigen Laptop aufgenommen und man hört - wie Brian Eno es freundlich nennt - den Sound des Versagens. Wills erste Liebe, der die Songs gewidmet sind, war doch ein zu großes Event für das Aufnahmemedium. Nun hat er ein größeres Budget und eine komplette Band am Start.

Tea For The Tillerman is arguably Cat Stevens’ best known and most cherished album. Originally released in November 1970, Universal Music will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary in style on 20th November 2020 with a multi-format release suite, including a very special 5CD/BD/1LP/12” Live E.P. Super Deluxe Edition reissue of one of music’s most classic albums.
The Super Deluxe set is features a brand new 2020 Remaster of the record, as well as a brand new 2020 Mix (overseen by Yusuf Islam producer / engineer David Hefti), with audio mixed from the original 1970 Island Records multi-track master tape. The 2020 Mix also appears on the 1LP which is 100% exclusive to this box set.

A lot has been said of Cat Stevens' early music being over-produced and filled with bloated '60s studio touches, which is true, but, even so, that shouldn't obscure the fact that in these songs lie the genius that was to become Cat Stevens. And they're not altogether bad songs either. This collection opens with "I Love My Dog," which, while not brilliant, at least showed that Stevens was willing to approach songwriting from unconventional angles even at that stage. The following track, "The First Cut Is the Deepest," would have been a perfect fit for the Righteous Brothers. The majority of the songs, which aren't as consistently great as his later work, are still impressive. "I'm So Sleepy" sounds similar to some of the tracks he'd be cutting in a few years, as does the Gordon Lightfoot-esque "Blackness of the Night" and "Where Are You," which wouldn't have been out of place on Mona Bone Jakon. That's not to say that some of the songs aren't poorly done, but, overall, if the horns and strings are stripped away, you still have a Cat Stevens album.

A lot has been said of Cat Stevens' early music being over-produced and filled with bloated '60s studio touches, which is true, but, even so, that shouldn't obscure the fact that in these songs lie the genius that was to become Cat Stevens. And they're not altogether bad songs either. This collection opens with "I Love My Dog," which, while not brilliant, at least showed that Stevens was willing to approach songwriting from unconventional angles even at that stage. The following track, "The First Cut Is the Deepest," would have been a perfect fit for the Righteous Brothers. The majority of the songs, which aren't as consistently great as his later work, are still impressive. "I'm So Sleepy" sounds similar to some of the tracks he'd be cutting in a few years, as does the Gordon Lightfoot-esque "Blackness of the Night" and "Where Are You," which wouldn't have been out of place on Mona Bone Jakon. That's not to say that some of the songs aren't poorly done, but, overall, if the horns and strings are stripped away, you still have a Cat Stevens album.

The Collected Cat Stevens is a three-disc box set that by no means eclipses the four-disc package released in 2001, bit does give it a good run for its money. Largely chronological, but oddly relegating some of Stevens' earliest hits to the end of the final disc, the box opens and closes with two of his most emotive numbers, the hit "Lady D'Arbanville," and the questioning "Father and Son," first heard in their familiar studio form, and then as live recordings. In between times, a total of 54 tracks bounces through Stevens career, from "Matthew & Son" through to "*"Midday (Avoid City After Dark)," credited to the singer's latter-day Yusuf Islam identity, and it's difficult to pick fault with any of the inclusions – even those which, like "Moonshadow," "Morning Has Broken" and, indeed, "Father and Son," are so tweely saccharin that it seems incredible anybody ever took them seriously. They did, though, and Stevens remains one of the few early-'70s singer/songwriters whose ouvre continues to attract new listeners with every passing generation. This smartly projected box will only add to their numbers.