Cat Stevens releases first album since embracing Islam in 1970s  

LONDON (AFP) - Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens before he became a Muslim in the 1970s, has released his first commercial album for nearly three decades -- but reviewers seemed unimpressed.
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"An Other Cup" went on sale in along with a single, "Heaven/Where True Love Goes", while the album was to be released in the United States on Tuesday.

With his telegenic, part-Greek good looks, Stevens scored international hits in the 1960 and 1970s with songs like "Wild World", "Moonshadow" and "My Lady d'Arbanville".

But in 1977 he decided to hang up his guitar -- changing his name and retiring from it all after receiving a copy of the Koran, he pledged to devote his life to the Islamic faith.

The singer-songwriter -- who hit the headlines in 2004 when a US-bound plane he was in was diverted due to post-9/11 security measures -- said in a recent BBC television interview that the new record was a return to his roots.

"It's me, so it's going to sound like that of course ... This is the real thing," he said Monday.

"When my son brought the guitar back into the house, you know, that was the turning point. It opened a flood of, of new ideas and music which I think a lot of people would connect with."

Initial reviews of the new album were not over-enthusiastic, however.

"The voice that skipped through 'Moonshadow' is wearier but intact," said newspaper The Observer, giving the record two stars out of five.

"There are melodies that, like that track, ring both sweet and mournful but, though the songs are all praises to the Creator (or His prophet), there is little sense of joy. Mostly the mood is glum piety," it added.

And it added: "Surely, as he sings on 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood', Yusuf's 'intentions are good'. A pearly grin would help convince, though -- Cat Stevens had lots of those."

Rolling Stone music magazine's reviewer was less ambiguous.

"Back in the 70s, Cat Stevens was a bearded guy who tagged pop-friendly folkie melodies to barely sufferable hippie-isms. Then he became a devout Muslim, changed his name ... and stopped making pop records," it said.

Three decades later, "'Heaven/Where True Love Goes' sounds like it could have been the theme song to a family-friendly Eighties sitcom; elsewhere, Islam offers cheesed-out sweetness such as "Green Fields, Golden Sands."

"Sufferable for sure, but hard to recommend," its reviewer said.