Yusuf/Cat Stevens - The Very Best Of Cat Stevens [Audio CD]

2003 compilation featuring 24 of the controversial singer/songwriter's very best, including 'Wild World', 'Father & Son', 'Peace Train', 'Morning Has Broken', 'The First Cut Is the Deepest' & more. Includes 4 tracks over the US version. Universal.  This set surveys all of Stevens's stages, from the orchestrated late-1960s sides through his early-'70s peak to his more eclectic late-1970s experiments. Following the progression makes for an interesting endeavor as Stevens learns to harness his ambitious ideas with arrangements that don't obscure his rhapsodic messages. Few artists of his generation were more gifted when it came to plucking timeless melodies out of thin air, and his sumptuous voice was always able to movingly convey his bittersweet lyrics. As a career overview this set achieves its goal, hitting all of the chart successes along the way and basically defining his role as a sensitive '70s singer-songwriter, but some fans may opt for the classic early-'70s studio records, which find Stevens at his most consistently touching. --Marc Greilsamer