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For his seventh studio album, 1973's Foreigner, Yusuf a.k.a. Cat Stevens made a major departure. It was the first album solely produced and written by the artist, and his first to somewhat jettison his folk-influenced acoustic sound in favor of a more expansive R&B style. Stevens traveled to Kingston, Jamaica to record the LP, enlisting an international array of musicians to join him. On July 26, A&M/UMe will release a remastered edition of Foreigner on CD, vinyl (standard 180-gram black and limited edition 180-gram blue, available exclusively via CatStevens.com, uDiscover Music, and The Sound of Vinyl), and standard and high-resolution digital formats.
Yusuf shares in the press release, "We're all foreigners. Say to an American or a European, that he's a foreigner and he'll say, 'No, you're the foreigner!' But we're all foreigners here, in a wider sense. We're all looking for freedom and accommodation within humanity." Foreigner, the artist's fifth album for Island/A&M, welcomed a host of American R&B musicians including Bernard "Pretty" Purdie on drums, Phil Upchurch on guitar, and the Tower of Power horn section. A British contingent appeared on the album, too, comprising bassists Herbie Flowers and Paul Martinez, and drummer Gerry Conway; South African keyboardist-arranger Jean Roussel helped shape the album's sound. Patti Austin, Tasha Thomas, and Barbara Massey all sang background vocals.
The LP was anchored by the side-length "Foreigner Suite," a shifting, lyrically dense musical journey which epitomized the experimental nature of the album. The second side introduced four considerably shorter pieces, including "The Hurt," a top 40 hit on both the U.S. Pop and AC charts.
Foreigner will be available on vinyl for the first time since its original release, on both 180-gram black vinyl and limited edition 180-gram blue vinyl, with a replica 12" lyric card insert. The blue vinyl pressing is exclusively available from CatStevens.com, uDiscover Music and Sound of Vinyl. Foreigner will also return to CD for the first time since its reissue in 2000; the reissue includes a 16-page booklet. As a special treat, the first pressings of the vinyl and CD editions will reprise the rare color cover that was quickly replaced by the familiar black-and-white cover after the initial run in 1973.
To coincide with the reissue of Foreigner, A&M/UMe is also reissuing Mona Bone Jakon (1970), Tea for the Tillerman (1970), and Teaser and the Firecat (1971) on 180-gram colored vinyl: Mona on sky blue, Tea on mint green, and Teaser on neon orange. These pressings, due on July 5, will feature the albums' 2020 remasters.
Look for Foreigner on July 26. You'll find the track listing and pre-order links below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Cat Stevens, Foreigner (A&M LP SP-4391, 1973 - reissued A&M/UMe/Cat-o-log, 2024)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
- Foreigner Suite
- The Hurt
- How Many Times
- Later
- 100 I Dream
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I was really hoping for a CD deluxe set, like they did for his first three albums, that would have included the quadraphonic mix. The vocals at the end of "Foreigner Suite" are really incredible in quad.
Yup. It's the best way to hear this challenging album IMO. Hoping Rhino's Quadio series can rescue it for those of us who long to hear it this way again.
Stevens owns the last three albums that he released before his conversion to Islam("Numbers","Izitso" & "Back to Earth") and he moved those albums to the Dark Horse label. It appears that Universal Music is retaliating against Stevens by not offering any more Super Deluxe editions of Stevens' albums.
I doubt that is the reason. I think it’s because the deluxe sets just didn’t sell very well at all unfortunately.
They were way way overpriced.
I do not like this new mix. There is too much bass. I get an annoying, deep undertone throughout both sides of the album. This is after cleaning it on a Kirmuss RCM. I compared it to my original from 50 years ago and prefer the original, even with its few pop and clicks.
Interesting. I find the bass nicely balanced in the remaster. In fact the bass on the remaster has helped me appreciate Paul Martinez's terrific bass playing, especially, for example, in the 3 min+ section of the Foreigner Suite from around 10.50.