Always was partial to On The Border from the prior platter. Another piece evocative of a particular time and place like YotC.
Mr. Stewart was frustrated because “Year of the Cat” was his first major hit and, from then on, Arista wanted a song on every album that had the same sound as “Year of the Cat” with the long sax solo. Hence “Time Passages” then “Song On The Radio”. He said they were commercial pap to sell singles.
I’d say his best song was “Roads To Moscow” which was way too long for radio airplay and quite depressing yet still a masterpiece. I also liked “Russians and Americans” although any song that begins “Here we stand at the edge of 1984...” is going to be dated very quickly.
“Broadway Hotel” is brilliantly done and exudes sexual tension like few songs I’ve ever heard. “Lord Grenville” is a great song for anyone who has wanted to just disappear and never return. “Optical Illusions” is a fabulous reflection of clinical depression. I think my absolute favorite though is “Pandora” which is about a man lost in a woman’s spell.
From the mid-70s to the mid-80s, he had many great tunes with fabulous lyrics but they weren’t commercial and he decided he didn’t want to be commercial.