If It Doesn’t Come Naturally, Leave It

When you immerse yourself in the music of If It Doesn’t Come Naturally, Leave It, you encounter a piece that seems to flow with surprising naturalness, even though its creation had a rather deliberate process. The interesting thing is that, for Al Stewart, the music and arrangements were often ready before the songs had a name. He himself has commented that this way of working, where the musical structure precedes the lyrics, was applied to several of his albums. This means that, when playing it, you are interpreting a melody that already had its own identity, waiting for the words to find their place. The duration of 4:29 gives us ample space to explore its nuances.

This track is part of the album Year of the Cat, released in 1976. The production of that album was handled by Alan Parsons, who was also in charge of the sound engineering. The album received a great boost thanks to the lead single, Year of the Cat, which became a hit and helped the record reach the top positions in the United States. On the Border was another single that resonated, reaching a prominent position in Canada. Al Stewart, born in 1945 as Alastair Ian Stewart, is a British musician who became known for his ability to intertwine folk-rock with historical narratives, creating a very personal style.