The record was an album of tremendous musical ingenuity and creativity and a triumph both in terms of Al Stewart's songwriting and the stunning and sophisticated production of Alan Parsons. With classics like 'On the Border', 'Lord Grenville', 'Midas Shadow', 'If it Doesn't Come Naturally, Leave It', 'One Stage Before' and the classic title track. Year Of The Cat was a huge commercial and critical hit when it was released, topping the US Billboard Top Five, and being a European hit that eventually went platinum in the US in March 1977. The single "Year of the Cat" was also a top ten hit in the US and a top 40 hit single in the UK, establishing Al Stewart as a major artist.

“Year of the Cat” is and remains a wonderful, perfect pop album. No more and no less. Of course the title track is in a class of its own, but unlike many other records that only contain one or two classics, the other songs are great too. Melancholic, exciting, humorous or just beautiful, these are probably the right attributes for this brilliant folk rock album. An example? How about "One stage before"? Awesome song, period! Or "On the Border", "Lord Grenville"? Class.

By the way, Alan Parsons has also proven his production genius here by giving Stewart's compositions a precise, but by no means cool sound and here and there a few nice, but discreetly distributed gimmicks (e.g. the intro of "Year of the Cat" or the Telephone voice effect in “One Stage before”) without watering down the songs.

AllMusic rating: