Al Stewart – Year of the Cat (RCA Victor 1976)

‘Year of the Cat’ was his big commercial breakthrough. The album sold by the bucketload, largely because of the incredibly catchy title track. And by all means, this is a classic song. One could even say that the song is for Al Stewart what ‘Stairway to Heaven’ is for Led Zeppelin – a signature song that is both very accessible, epic and musically complex at the same time. It’s a song I never tire of either, no matter how many times I hear it. Surely it’s not folk, or folk rock, but by this point there was very little left of Al Stewart as the old folk rock troubadour. My favourite song here, has always been the album opener ‘Lord Grenville’. It’s one of his most haunting songs ever, features fantastic melodies and (as always) great storytelling. One could even call it symphonic folk. Other great tracks include the low key and slightly jazzy ‘Midas Shadow’, the uptempo and ridiculously catchy ‘If It Doesn’t Come Naturally, Leave It’ (words to behold indeed) and ‘One Stage Before’, the only song here that can be called dark (or dark by his standards, at least). ‘Year of the Cat’ was the first album I heard and bought by this artist, so it has a special place in my heart. It’s also a very fine album to start with in general. But if you prefer more introspective, creative and acoustically driven singer/songwriter art, there are several other (earlier) albums by Al Stewart you definitely should check out. I would say that he didn’t release bad albums until the 80’s, but his best and most creative period will for me always be the early 70’s.