Yusuf / Cat Stevens - The Laughing Apple (2017) [CD Rip]

The Laughing Apple brings Yusuf's career full circle, coming 50 years after his first album. It reunites him with producer Paul Samwell-Smith and guitarist Alun Davies, prominent collaborators on landmark recordings including 1970's multi-platinum Tea for the Tillerman.

The Laughing Apple follows the common '60s template of combining newly written songs with covers from Yusuf's catalog, presenting some of his earliest material as he has always wished it had been recorded.

The most recent songs — "See What Love Did to Me," "Olive Hill" and "Don't Blame Them" — possess the reflective insight of a spiritual seeker. Four others, including one initially intended for the 1971 film 'Harold and Maude,' have been updated with new sections. Additional highlights include contemporary versions of "Blackness of the Night," "Northern Wind (Death of Billy the Kid)," "I'm So Sleepy" and the title track, songs that appeared in their original incarnations on 1967's New Masters.

The Laughing Apple takes listeners to that little garden where the Tillerman sat under the tree, with a new illustration by Yusuf. Yusuf also has illustrated each of the album's 11 songs in his naïve style, resembling a storybook — for those whose hearts have never grown old.