Catch Bull is impeccably produced. Its musical contents are like those of Teaser and the Firecat -- simple, short-phrased melodies and spare and vibrant arrangements. There are, however, notable differences between Catch Bull and its predecessor. The instrumental repertoire has been widened somewhat: three cuts make minimal use of a synthesizer, and on four cuts Cat plays piano. The result is a definite relaxation from the rigorous simplicity of Teaser -- a simplicity that, for me, was just one step away from monotony, especially since it underscored the shallowness of Cat's appealing but essentially frivolous, unfocused lyrics. Happily, the greatest difference between Teaser and Catch Bull lies in the lyric themes of the songs. Though some of the lyrics retain Cat's fanciful imagery -- word poems so dreamily obscure as to defy interpretation -- he shows a new emotional directness, especially on side two, the album's "down" side. This is reflected in Cat's singing, which becomes more assured and more emotive with each album. Alas, what is missing throughout Catch Bull is any single tune with the distinction of "Morning Has Broken," the most memorable cut on Teaser.

The tone of side one is tentatively happy. It begins with "Sitting," which has Cat on piano and electric mandolin, and Alun Davies on guitar. The song's circular melodic patterns aptly express a resigned but not hopeless personal philosophy: "Just keep on pushing hard, boy, try as you may/ You're going to wind up where you started from." "The Boy with the Moon and Star on His Head" is a silly narrative "legend," styled after a typical "olde" English country ballad, about a luminescent illegitimate "love child." "Angelsea," "Silent Sunlight," and "Can't Keep It In" are celebratory meditations, the first two carrying Cat's elusive, sometimes shimmering visual imagery. Sound effects -- muted synthesizer on "Angelsea" and penny whistle on "Silent Sunlight" -- are used with delicacy and taste. "Can't Keep It In," the most openly joyous cut, fittingly closes the side. The propulsive energy generated by Stevens' and Davies' dual acoustic guitars is considerable, as Cat sings his outbursting message with infectious gusto.

"Freezing Steel," though not as powerful, continues the nightmare theme, again expressing intimations of insanity, this time in a dream of being kidnapped and taken to Venus: "...the pilot turned around/ He said we're Venus bound/ Oh please take me home/ After all I'm only human and the Earth is where I belong." The beautiful "Oh Caritas" (written by Stevens and Jeremy Taylor and Andreus Toumazis) is a passionate Greek prayer for enough longevity to attain spiritual enlightenment, first sung in Latin and then in English translation, with Toumazis on bouzouki and Cat on Spanish guitar and drums. "Sweet Scarlet," which follows, is a glowing, enigmatic song of love lost but self regained: "All those days are frozen now and all those scars are gone/ Ah, but the song carries on... so holy." Cat sings it with only his own piano accompaniment, and it is a knockout -- terse, mature, and emotionally convincing.

"Ruins," the finale, is the album's most pessimistic statement, since it is neither nightmare nor romantic recollection, but depressing observation of mankind's ecocidal tendency. A song about returning to one's hometown and finding it disastrously changed, it has one of Cat's most coherent and detailed lyrics -- no flights of fancy or oblique metaphors here, only the truth of his own feelings, which he alternately expresses with fierce bitterness and dismal sadness: "I want back, I want back/ Back to the time when the earth was green/ And there was no high walls and the sea was clean."

All told, I think that Catch Bull At Four is more interesting than Teaser, though tune for tune it is far less memorable. With Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman I was content to bask in gorgeous melody and orchestration. The economy and simplicity of Teaser I admired more than I liked. But what could come next, if Cat continued in this direction? Though Catch Bull doesn't answer this question definitively, I think it represents Cat's challenge to himself to transcend poetic eccentricity and come out front with a clearer, more unified, more emotionally direct expression of what he is about. I hope he continues to wrestle with this challenge, even if its outcome is more truth and less beauty.

- Stephen Holden, Rolling Stone, 11/23/72.

Bonus Reviews!

Cat Stevens' creative energy has been as a breath of fresh air cooling the hot arid wasteland that is so much of today's music. His ability to capture the full range and import of things seemingly trivial and impress into musical passages emotions that are buried in the hearts of us all is a rare and wondrous gift. There is not a soul that cannot be roused upon hearing "Can't Keep It In" or one who has not traveled along its own "18th Avenue."

- Billboard, 1972.

Reading the lyric of "The Boy with the Moon and Star on His Head," I was impressed by how unpretentiously it simulated early English poetry. But when I listened -- a widely recommended method for the perception of songs -- I noticed affectations like "the naked earth beneath us and the universe above," and winced at the next-to-last couplet, which ends with a weak word for the sake of a weak rhyme. Then I browsed in Norman Ault's anthology of Elizabethan lyrics. Forget it, Cat. C

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

Catch Bull At Four dates from a period between the simple, some might say simplistic, songs of the Teaser and Tillerman albums and the sprawling music of the Foreigner Suite which followed. These songs and recording share a refreshing robustness and vigour. In addition to the familiar Stevens' love songs and ballads -- "Silent Sunlight" is a thin remake of "Morning Has Broken" -- there is more up-tempo material like the inventive acoustic guitar/synth-based "Angelsea" and the very powerful "18th Avenue" with its propulsive piano and percussion and jagged string orchestration.

Nimbus CD mastering reveals this album as one of Stevens' finest; the "sharpness" of the LP sound is gone. Though not as immediately appealing as the earlier material -- which can incidentally be strongly recommended in the CD format -- the heavier production sound on Catch Bull At Four repays CD reproduction.

- David Prakel, Rock 'n' Roll on Compact Disc, 1987.

Catch Bull at Four was Stevens's commercial peak, holding the #1 spot for three weeks. Much of the reason for this was probably public anticipation that this would be as smoothly appealing as his previous two outings. With this album, Stevens's melodies became more ornate and his delivery became a little gruffer. Overall, it is one of his better albums with "Eighteenth Avenue," "Sitting," and "Can't Keep It In" as highlights. * * * *

- Rick Clark, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

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