REVIEWS

CAT STEVENS MONA BONE JAKON: SUPER DELUXE EDITION

A&M/UMe (4 CD, 2 LP, 1 Blu-ray)

****

TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN: SUPER DELUXE EDITION

A&M/UMe (5 CD, 2 LP, 1 Blu-ray)

*****

After a sputtering start, the singer-songwriter then known as Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) managed to successfully turn his career around in 1970. His 1967 debut album, Matthew & Son, had reached the U.K. Top 10, but his second album flopped, and he was then sidelined by an extended bout of tuberculosis. By the time he recovered, he decided a few changes were in order. Working with a new label, a new producer and a new sound, Mona Bone Jakon spawned the hit U.K. single “Lady D’Arbanville,” and the follow-up, Tea for the Tillerman, gave him his first U.S. Top 10 album (No. 20 in the U.K.). For the next seven years, a steady stream of hits followed.

Now both of these key albums have been reissued in a variety of formats: single CD and LP, a double-CD Deluxe Edition, and Super Deluxe Edition box sets, each featuring plenty of previously unreleased material. Both sets also present two versions of the complete album; one version newly remastered, one having a new mix.

Even on the instrumentally sparser MBJ, the differences between the original and the new mix are quite apparent; the opening piano line on “Maybe You’re Right” really jumps out at you in the new mix. The folky “Lady D’Arbanville” opens the album (a song to a dead lover, it’s somewhat creepy to learn the Lady’s name was that of Stevens’ soon to be ex-girlfriend, the still very much alive Patti D’Arbanville). “Trouble” has an understated elegance that makes it a classic. Conversely, the exuberant “I Think I See the Light” has a bright, bold, gospel fervor (also sounding more robust in the new remix).

There’s a CD of demos (including one song that didn’t make the final cut, the country-flavored “I Want