Al Stewart-Year Of The Cat (1976)

In 1976 Al Stewart published his masterpiece, an album that made him one of the greatest singer-songwriters in history with one of the songs that have gone down in history as one of the contemporary classics.
When "Year of the Cat" was released, it quickly hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, in addition to the eponymous song, the album contained memorable moments like "On the Border", "Broadway Hotel" or "On Stage before".
In "Year of the Cat", Stewart offers us one of his best pop compositions with folk traits, based on a glamorous vocal expression and based on a melody that seduces us from the first time we listen to the piano and has just fallen in love with his sax only. In a way it reminds us of Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street'.
It is not jazz, nor power ballad, nor blues, nor pop, nor rock. It is a mixture of brilliantly linked instruments. Some are giving prominence to the others in an absolutely masterful way.
This theme is also endowed with some progressive overtones, with immense, sublime moments, mainly seductive by the American public, which reminded them of the first Bob Dylan.
The lyrics, written jointly with Peter Wood and performed with a pleasant nasal voice, is another masterpiece for those who feel like poets and lovers of melodic music. A whole spiritual experience that has its origin in the film ‘Casablanca’ by Michael Curtiz, brilliantly interpreted by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.