Tea for the Tillerman 2
by Yusuf
  • Record Label: A&M
  • Release Date: Sep 18, 2020
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 1 out of 5
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  1. djayarnold
    Oct 1, 2021
    8
    Nothing beats the original, but this album is a thoughtful reimagining that offers much to ponder. And the emotional peak, where, on “Father and Son,” 20-year-old Cat spars with 70-year-old Yusuf, is almost unbearably affecting. It’s hard not to cry.

    This is not an attempt to one-up the original. Rather, it’s a refreshingly unselfconscious view of today’s artist honestly approaching    Nothing beats the original, but this album is a thoughtful reimagining that offers much to ponder. And the emotional peak, where, on “Father and Son,” 20-year-old Cat spars with 70-year-old Yusuf, is almost unbearably affecting. It’s hard not to cry.

    This is not an attempt to one-up the original. Rather, it’s a refreshingly unselfconscious view of today’s artist honestly approaching yesterday’s classic. Not a substitute, but a worthy supplement.

    Surprises: a harder-rocking “Miles from Nowhere,” an expanded “But I Might Die Tonight,” and a “Longer Boats” that starts faithfully but careens through earnest (cloying but brief) guest rapping and triumphant post-Aquarian peace-funk: “Give ’em hell for peace and love!” And more: “On the Road to Find Out” as world-weary gutbucket blues.

    It’s definitely growing on me.    … Expand
  2. MajorBateman
    Sep 27, 2020
    10
    Once in a lifetime opportunity to reimagine a classic album 50 years later. Cat doesn't disappoint
  3. Greenbaum
    Sep 22, 2020
    10
    I've listened to this album 4 or 5 times now and it's just so wonderful. I am a huge fan of the original and it's great hearing his new take on these songs. I just found out that he is singing with his younger self on Father and Son which is one of my favorites. I highly recommend this if you like the original but are open to a new interpretation.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Under The Radar
    Nov 2, 2020
    75
    These songs are classics. A traditional covers album could see the songs being royally sullied, but to have the artist himself sully his own classics with subpar reimaginings would be sacrilege. For the most part, Stevens walks the tightrope with the deftness of an artist who has only gotten better with age.
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  2. Classic Rock Magazine
    Sep 25, 2020
    70
    Plants such enduring standards as Wild World and Father And Son firmly in the now. [Oct 2020, p.87]
  3. AllMusic
    Sep 18, 2020
    50
    A curious misfire that trades strength and confidence for second guessing and stylistic uncertainty.
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