Review Summary: Tell 'em Cat Stevens is gone...
Living in the “Wild World” has finally broken Yusef. On his new album, "Tell ‘Em I’m Gone", Yusef, better known as Cat Stevens, takes a sharp thematic turn away from the music most people know him for. This isn’t the same hopeful folkie that made classic albums like "Tea For The Tillerman" and "Teaser and the Firecat". Gone are bright, uplifting songs like “Peace Train” and “Can’t Keep It In”. Instead, what we hear is a rough, hardened troubadour, embittered by years spent in a darkened world. "Tell ‘Em I’m Gone" is a rugged, gritty album (by Cat Stevens standards). “Big Boss Man” and “Gold Digger” are bluesy tracks speaking to populist oppression by the economic elite. “Dying to Live” features lyrics like “Why am I dying to live if I’m just living to die.” “I Was Raised In Babylon” and “The Devil Came From Kansas” have titles that speak for themselves. Even Yusef’s rendition of the campfire classic “You Are My Sunshine” is tinged melancholy, as if the person he’s singing to is the only source of light in a life burdened by hardship. The cover art, which depicts a silhouetted Yusef gazing off into a blue sky, is consistent with the album’s thematic tone, as if he is a man who has already departed this world and is seeking something greater. All this isn’t to say "Tell ‘Em I’m Gone" is completely bleak. The closing track, “Doors”, offers a glimmer of hope, even if that hope hides far beyond the horizon. Yusef remains an astute lyricist and an important musical voice, but in these trying times, we need dreamer who heard the Peace Train sounding louder.
