New Masters
OverviewThe label was disappointed by Cat Stevens' second album's poor sales, given that the previous album made the UK Top Ten and produced several hit singles. New Masters generated little interest, failing to chart in either the UK or the United States. The single "Kitty"/"Blackness of the Night" languished at number 47, becoming Stevens' first single to miss the top 40. This was a sudden and steep commercial decline from the considerable success that Stevens enjoyed with his earlier recordings.[1] "The First Cut Is the Deepest" has been covered successfully by several artists. Prior to the release of New Masters, Stevens had sold the song for £30 to P. P. Arnold (formerly of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue) which gave the former Ikette her first UK hit.[2] In the decades to come it would also be a hit for Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow, James Morrison and Keith Hampshire. Hampshire's version reached no. 1 on the Canadian charts in 1973. Other versions have been rendered by singer Barbara Jones, Colm Wilkinson of Les Misérables and Jesus Christ Superstar fame, Duffy and the Jools Holland Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. Recording.jpg) Cat Stevens and producer Mike Hurst finally convened together at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London on 3 July 1967 together with music director Arthur Greenslade.[4] This was Stevens' first studio session in almost half a year, following his 1 February recording of "Here Comes My Baby", which had appeared on Matthew & Son.[5] Stevens' recorded two songs that would appear on New Masters at Olympic; "Moonstone and "The Laughing Apple"[6]. A third song, "A Bad Night", was aimed as a single release.[6] Following this, Stevens garnered a preference for Olympic Studios, compared to Decca Studios in West Hampstead where most of his other Deram output was recorded.[7] According to both Stevens and Hurst, the recording of New Master was "horrendous"; the latter admitted that lawyers were present in the studio during the recording sessions.[8] Due to the contractual problems with Stevens, Decca believed the album might "have been their last shot with him", and thus forced him to record the rest of it at Decca Studios, despite his objections as he wanted "to use Olympic again".[9] Despite this, Stevens wouldn't enter a recording studio for another few months to allow for Deram to release "A Bad Night" as a single,[10] which they did on 28 July.[11] "A Bad Night" reached number 20 on the Record Retailer chart,[12] which prompted Decca to rush him into Decca Studios as it was descending the charts on 24 September to cut an early rendition of "Come on Baby (Shift That Log)", which was ultimately discarded.[6] The released recording of "Come on Baby" was ultimately recorded on 4 October, together with another outtake titled "Sing!"[6] On 5 October, "The First Cut Is the Deepest" and "I Love Them All" were recorded, with "I'm So Sleepy" and "Ceylon City" following during later dates in October.[6] "Kitty", "Smash Your Heart" and "I'm Gonna Be King" were all taped in November,[13][nb 1] with the final recording session of songs aimed for album release occurred on 3 November when "Northern Wind" and "Blackness of the Night" were committed to tape.[6] Stevens played guitar and was backed by several session musicians during the recording sessions,[10] as he had been for his debut album.[14] Although most documentation regarding musicians on the tracks have been lost to time, it is known that it included Herbie Flowers and John Paul Jones (bass),[15][16] Big Jim Sullivan (guitar),[17] Nicky Hopkins (keyboards),[18][19] Chris Hunt (drums),[15] alongside a plethora of string- and woodwind players; Hurst estimated 35 performers to be present during the Olympic recording session.[4] In addition to producing the album,[20] Hurst also contributed with rhythm guitar and backing vocals.[17][21] In contrast to Matthew & Son, which was entirely orchestrated by Alan Tew, New Masters features five different music directors present: Tew Phil Dennys, David Whitaker, Ivor Raymonde, Des Champ.[22] This reflected the conflict Stevens was facing during the album's recording process.[15] Release and commercial performance New Masters was initially slated for release in September 1967,[24] but was delayed to allow for a revised track listing.[25] On 1 December, Deram issued "Kitty", backed by "Blackness of the Night" as a single as a "taster of things to come".[6][26][nb 2] The single only showed a mild performance on the charts, reaching number 47 for a single week,[12] prompting Deram to rush-release New Masters in the UK on 15 December 1967 in both mono and stereo formats.[28][nb 3][nb 4] A release of New Masters followed in the United States during January 1968, where it was distributed through London Recordings.[29][nb 5] Although the album received promotion in major trade magazines including Billboard,[23] Decca was generally unwilling to promote the album due to the "potentially litigutous" legal problems between Stevens' and Hurts resulting in it failing to chart entirely in both the UK or the US upon initial release.[1][30] This marked a rampant decline in Stevens' initial popularity as a teenage idol.[31] Interest in Stevens' earlier output arose in the US following his chart success there as a folk rock singer with albums such as Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the Firecat (1971).[32] This success prompted Deram to re-issue New Masters in a double album package with his debut album Matthew & Son in March 1971.[33][nb 6] This release sold well enough to reach the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 173 in June 1971 during a 12 week run.[34] Despite being a chart failure in the UK, New Masters was never deleted from the Deram catalogue, and re-issued multiple times during the 1970s.[35] When Decca were in the process of re-releasing much of their pop catalogue on the compact disc format in the late 1980s, New Masters finally received such a release in 1989.[35][nb 7] This re-release also collected Stevens' four non-album singles during the later parts of his Deram career, starting with "A Bad Night" (1967) and ending with "Where Are You?" (1969).[36] New Masters was issued on CD again in 2003,[35][nb 8] collecting his non-album Deram singles in addition to having the mono single versions for "Kitty", "Blackness of the Night" and "The Laughing Apple".[27] Finally, New Masters was re-issued on vinyl for the first time since 1982 on 27 March 2020, this edition being remixed at Abbey Road Studios.[38] ReceptionContemporary reviews
Upon initial release, New Masters received primarily positive reviews in the UK press. In Disc and Music Echo, journalist Penny Valentine found that Cat Stevens' musical abilities came "off far better on an LP" than on singles, and considered the album to be better than his previous one.[41] Writing for Record Mirror, journalists Peter Jones noted the album to have a "folky feel" which was a trademark for his music, and praised the song arrangements, believing the album to be "well recorded".[39] Though they single out "Kitty", "I'm So Sleepy" and "Ceylon City" as the LP's most "striking tracks", the duo felt that Stevens' own interpretation of "The First Cut Is the Deepest" was inferior to P. P Arnold's original as it was "less frenetic and effective".[39] They end the review by noting that they were unsure whether they "liked it [the album] or not", despite giving it four out of four stars.[39] New Musical Express reviewer Allen Evans believed that New Masters established Cat Stevens as a forceful beat singer, and noted the contrasting tempos, timbre and music genres found on the album.[40] Evans found it impressive that Stevens had composed all of the LP's tracks, and singled out "Ceylon City" and the "Dylanesque" "Blackness of the Night" as his favorite tracks.[40] He gave the LP four out of four stars.[40] Chris Welch of Melody Maker opinioned that the music deserved "recognition", and believed the album was Stevens' best vocal performance thus far, likened his voice on certain tracks to "a sort of Arabian Tim Hardin".[42] He praised the songs as being "often beautiful" and "picturesque", mostly due to the production of Mike Hurst and the arrangements by the various music directors.[42] Though he noted the LP would've benefitted by including liner notes, he ended his review by stating that it was "surprising Cat hasn't had a hit single recently", owing to the strength of the material.[42] In the US, New Masters also received reviews in the major music trade publications, but was largely ignored by other reviewers.[43] The anonymous reviewer in Billboard magazine wrote that the album was full of "highly inventive material", singling out the "The Laughing Apple", "The First Cut Is the Deepest," and "Come on Baby (Shift That Log)" as highlights.[44] The reviewer also opinioned that the rest of the material was "topnotch", predicting a breakthrough for Stevens in the US.[44] Retrospective assessment and legacy
Retrospectively, New Masters has received primarily mixed reviews by critics, mostly owing to the orchestration.[43] Noel Coppage of Stereo Review found the album to be "outlandishly overproduced", with "needless blasts, tinkles, and rattles intrude on almost every song".[45] He notes "Come on Baby (Shift That Log)" as an exception, but derides "Moonstone" as "buried under glop".[45] Despite this, Coppage found that every song had appeal.[45] AllMusic critic Bruce Eder stated that the album was as "uneven musically" as Stevens' debut album album "was bold", but noted that the two albums were "more of the same" albeit believed New Masters to be less interesting as a "late 1967 release".[1] He noted the albums diverse tracks, ranging from the "pop balladry" of "Smash Your Heart", the whimsiness of "Moonstone" the folky-pop, which he believed to be "highly derivative" in some cases.[1] He singled out "The First Cut Is the Deepest" and "Come on Baby (Shift That Log)" as the album's highlights.[1] Track listingAll tracks written by Cat Stevens.[27] Track lengths adapted from the 1989 re-issue of New Masters.[46] Canvas one[nb 9]
Canvas two[nb 9]
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