Tea For The Tillerman²

Yusuf/Cat Stevens reimagining of his iconic album is a push and pull between modernity and sanctity

A seasoned pro trades in boxset boredom for charming re-records as 1970s release 'Tea for the Tillerman' gets a modern makeover

In the age of the reissue — legacy acts scrambling around for any dusty old demo tape to tack onto the end of a classic record so they can squeeze some cash out of a “deluxe” version — this release from Yusuf/Cat Stevens is refreshingly different.

Whether these ‘fuller’ versions will attract new listeners is debatable. However, there are certainly surprises

One can only imagine Yusuf, the artist known as in his salad days as Cat Stevens, was thinking along these lines when he decided to make Tea for the Tillerman 2, a song-by-song remake of the 1970 album that became his international breakthrough hit.

Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman is an unqualified classic. Released in 1970, it was Stevens’ fourth album but it was Tea for the Tillerman that catapulted him to internationally success with songs such as “Where Do the Children Play?,” “Fathe