Right on time for its 50^th anniversary Teaser and the Firecat received its own super deluxe edition in a huge box set, with a new remaster of the classic album and packed chock-full with demo tapes, live recordings and bonus material surrounding the album’s original release.

This anniversary treatment is in line with the previous super deluxe releases of Yusuf’s classic albums Mona Bone Jakon, Tea for the Tillerman, and Back to Earth, but surpasses in scope by every metric the previously released Teaser deluxe edition from 2008, which came on two discs only.

Of special note are the included exlusive reprint of the 1970’s Teaser and the Firecat children’s book, written and illustrated by Cat Stevens himself at the time, as well as its accompanying short animation film remastered in HD4K and included in the box set’s Blu-ray disc (see video below). Two rare live concerts are also included both in audio and video form, the 1971 “Out Front; Cat Stevens & Friends” UK TV concert and the 1971 live concert in Montreux, Switzerland, the latter of which we never knew even existed.

As with Cat’s other re-releases, the original producer, Paul Samwell-Smith, was again in charge to oversee the remastering of the album. Unfortunately the multitrack masters could not be excavated so that a 2021 remix of the classic album was not possible but only a remaster of the stereo tapes, which came out well. This is especially unfortunate considering how skillfully crafted and phenomenally sounding the 2020 remixes turned out for Mona and Tea in the previous anniversary releases.

Nonetheless what an outstanding release!