Customer Reviews

Essential Leonard Cohen

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Hopefully this won't be the last attempt at the "essential" Leonard Cohen, but this will serve as a superb interim introduction. I have been a big Leonard Cohen fan for years, ever since hearing "Suzanne" on the radio and then hearing a bevy of his songs in the superb and profoundly underrated Robert Altman film McCABE AND MRS. MILLER, which uses several of his songs on the soundtrack (back when songs were included to enhance the movie rather than provide an excuse for a soundtrack album). I have striven over the years to introduce Cohen to as many of my friends as possible, and early on played him to my daughter. Happily most (including my daughter) have become fans as well.

For some friends, I would make compilation tapes, and here is where one becomes aware of the problem with Cohen. Apart, perhaps, for his first album, Cohen is not at all well served by albums. He is far more of a singles artist, and some of his best individual songs can be found on otherwise miserable albums. A compilation can, in addition, mask how many really bad songs Cohen has recorded over the years. Luckily, at his best, he is very, very good. An anthology, therefore, is by far the best way to present Cohen's work, in comparison to other performers like The Clash or Van Morrison, who are better discovered in their original albums. It is even true of artists sometimes compared to Cohen, like Nick Cave.

So, how does this anthology rate? Actually, pretty good. In the compilations I have made either for myself or for friends, this contains nearly every song that I have found most essential. The only significant omission that I can find is "Joan of Arc," which I dearly wish had been included. I would have liked to have seen the live version of that song, featuring Jennifer Warnes singing the part of the "Joan" lines with Leonard singing the "Fire" ones. But any Cohen fan will find a song or two that they would like to have seen included in lieu of one of the ones that made the final cut. What is striking is how few of my own got left off.

Nonetheless, we really need a good, deluxe box set of Leonard Cohen's work, with detailed information about the musicians, which would be especially interesting on much of the earlier work. A disc of outtakes and rarities would be great, if for no other reason than to confirm my suspicion that Cohen has already placed his best work in the public eye. My gut feeling is that Cohen is a careful crafter of a few good songs, instead of a prolific writer of a spate like Bob Dylan. But I would at least like to see what there is in the way of alternate takes and unreleased songs.

Anyone wanting to learn about Leonard Cohen could hardly do better than this album. In fact, only the hardest of diehard fans will want to go very far beyond this disc. Anyone discovering that they really loved this music would be best served next by digging up a copy of Jennifer Warnes's (who has often appeared as a back up singer on Cohen albums) extraordinary album of Leonard Cohen covers, FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT. But I can't imagine many music fans not being stunned by this collection. Cohen isn't a prolific writer, but he has produced a small but spectacular collection of songs that need to be in the music library of any serious music fan.

LC, I'm your fan. Have been since I first heard Suzanne going on four decades ago. I used to sing it walking down Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley; it was a phenomenal song then and it still is. This 31 song double CD covers Cohen's career from Suzanne taking your hand and leading to the river to Alexandra leaving with her lord. There is nothing that should not be on this collection, unlike many so-called Essential collections when there is almost always one or more "what the heck is THAT song doing here" moment. My only complaint is that it could easily have had 7 or 8 more cuts; Songs from a Room is badly underrepresented -- where is the unbelievably sad Seems So Long Ago, Nancy and the Hours-like Tonight Will Be Fine, with its lyric that captured Cohen then and does now as well, "I choose the rooms I live in with care/the windows are small and the walls almost bare?" And while I'm mighty happy to have Cohen's version of Famous Blue Raincoat, why not his definitive Joan of Arc? Oh, well, enough carping. Those who have most or all of Cohen's work may not need this -- although popped into the CD player it is a magnificant overview of how consistently strong his work has been for decades, none of the Dylan peaks and valleys. But for those who have only a couple of the albums or are looking to get introduced, this CD is definitive and, oh, yes, essential.

The electronic drum is set slow. The synthesizer is a dirge. And the singer's voice --- imagine a three-pack-a-day man at four in the morning with his dog recently dead. His voice is a whispered croak, a tragic monotone.

Well, Leonard Cohen never said he made music for parties. He did say --- not in so many words, but this was the implicit promise --- that he'd stare the mirror down and make his secret life public. That he'd go "a thousand kisses deep" and report back. That, for the women who are his most passionate admirers, "I'm your man."

It's easy to see through Leonard Cohen --- at least that's what his critics say. To them, he's "the poet laureate of pessimism," "the grocer of despair," "the godfather of gloom," "the prince of bummers." His songs: "music to slit your wrists to."

His fans know different. I have been one since 1968, when I read his two novels, The Favorite Game and Beautiful Losers, and heard his first record. That album was like no other. It took itself seriously. And it took you seriously. That was the heart of the transaction --- a search for truth in a world where "even damnation is poisoned with rainbows" and God is always both present and mystifyingly silent.

That world view sounds off-putting. Dark. Unrewarding. In fact, Cohen is --- for some of us --- immensely musical. Even inspiring. But that's hidden. He's sardonic: "I was born like this, I had no choice/I was born with the gift of a golden voice." The quest is the thing, always: "Like a bird on a wire/ Like a drunk in a midnight choir/ I have tried, in my way, to be free."

Early on, that quest led him to Zen Buddhism, the ideal choice for smarties who need to be quiet and listen. Cohen went further. He sought his teachers' advice on his music:

"Roshi came to the studio one night when I was recording 'New Skin for the Old Ceremony.' That was in the seventies. In those days I was being written off as a morbid old depressive drone peddling suicide notes. (Still am, in some circles). Roshi slept through most, but not all, of the session. The next morning I asked him what he thought. He said, 'Leonard, you should sing more sad.' That was the best advice I ever got. Took a while to put it into practice."

In recent years, that quest has taken him deeper --- he spent a decade in a Buddhist monastery, serving his teacher. He emerged in 2001 with Ten New Songs. Of his recent work, it's a standout --- every song takes you under, wrings you out, shows you something new. And for a guy who has sometime been content to stand on two or three chords, it's musically rich. Sadder? Hard to say.

If you are unfamiliar with Cohen and want to make a smart start --- well, that's a problem. Maybe, although I generally oppose anthologies, The Essential Leonard Cohen.

Why is Cohen such a talisman for me? Because of the remarkable consistency of his vision. Others have detoured into politics, been fooled by chimera. Cohen, from the beginning, insisted on love as his topic. We're made in love. We disappear into love. We fail, often and gloriously. But the aspiration alone, however doomed, is triumphant. "There's a blaze of light/In every word."

Cohen is not the voice of acceptance. He does better: Hallelujah. But of course. "The holy or the broken Hallelujah" --- they're the same. In our imperfection lies our glory: "There's a crack in the world. That's how the light gets in."

Wherever you look, Cohen's been there. And moved on. To a place that looks almost exactly like the old one. Just a bit...lighter. Which, though odd, seems correct --- the king of bummers brightens the world.

Those who unfavorably compare Leonard Cohen's recording of his own song "Hallelujah" with the versions by Allison Crowe and Jeff Buckley are missing the point. Have they listened to the lyrics? The narrator is world-weary, rueful, broken, a sorrowful and wise survivor. Much as I admire Crowe and Buckley and their ability generally to cover other songwriters' material, they didn't convey (or perhaps even fully comprehend) the song's profound heartbreak and desolate beauty. Cohen lived it, and tells it. Listen again.

Of course, I didn't realize just how essential it was until I acquired it and listened to it. Now I question how I ever got along without it. I have come to the conclusion that I could probably have only this one CD to listen to until the day I die (and I am a lover of almost ALL types of music), and it would be enough. Cohen somehow can take us to another plane or dimension and I have to tell you, it's disappointing having to come back to the real world. His songs are beautiful, haunting, sometimes funny or biting, but ALWAYS mesmerizing. Thank you, Leonard Cohen, for your very existence and for this great gift you have shared with us.

There is just something about the combination of his imagery and his deep raspy voice that makes you want to listen. You can really hear the words to his songs and they make you stop and think. A rare combination of musician and philosopher.

The name Leonard Cohen first came to my attention way back in the day when Suzanne was released. It was a fairly popular and much-covered song, but it never occurred to me to actually buy the album. I was into much musically heavier things at the time and so my awareness of Cohen gradually receded into distant memory.
Nowadays, my musical interests are much wider and my pockets deeper, so I took a chance on Cohen's CD Ten New Songs when it was released several years ago. It took a while to get into, but I liked some of the songs immediately. My rule with music is that if I like a CD I've purchased by an unfamiliar artist, I buy something else by that artist also in order to give myself a broader enjoyment and understanding of their work. And so it went with Cohen. I picked up several more CDs and liked them enough to feel confident that I would be pleased with The Essential Leonard Cohen.
I have read all the reviews posted here, both positive and negative, and observe that its a given with any compilation that one will always feel that some songs were included that shouldn't have been and some obvious winners omitted. My candidate for ejection is Alexandra Leaving. I would have much preferred to see Boogie Street included or possibly Joan of Arc in its stead.
I think the CD is nicely divided into two periods because as several reviewers have noted, Cohen seems to have two voices. A lot of songs on the first CD one might classify as neo-folk, for lack of a better term. On this, I like Suzanne, The Partisan, Hallelujah, and I'm Your Man best.
On the second CD, the music is more in the direction of soul tinged rock with the occasional nod to country. And Cohen's deepening voice on the second CD imbues the music with more mystery and even occasional menace. I prefer the second disc with its apocalyptic renderings of First We Take Manhattan and The Future. Cohen's blood-chilling delivery on the latter combined with its scathing lyrics should give everyone a lot to think about. Closing Time wouldn't be out of place in any country dancehall and could probably be an alt-country radio hit. A Thousand Kisses Deep is evocative of the work of Michael Franks during his Objects of Desire period. But next to The Future, you might find the live recording of the dreamy and romantic Dance Me To The End of Love to be the surprise best cut. It is really tremendous. Juxtaposed with the former, it shows Cohen to be a man of huge talent who can literately express the gamut of human emotion through song.
This CD is not really for those who have all of Leonard Cohen's recordings already, but it is a suitable primer for anyone who wants an overview of this underrated musician's work.

My only regret as I listened to "The Essential Leonard Cohen" over and over is that I didn't really discover this magnificent artist until 35 years after his recording career started. I knew the name, remembered vaguely the soundtrack from "McCabe and Mrs. Miller", and enjoyed the Austin Lounge Lizards parody song "Leonard Cohen's Day Job" (I now understand many more of the jokes), but it wasn't until I came by some "mad money" in September of this year and bought the 1975 "Best Of" that my eyes and ears opened to this unbelievably talented songwriter and vastly underrated singer. His lyrics are continually challenging and humorous at the same time. His vocals and arrangements have become richer and more complex over time, which in no way denigrates the simple beauty of such early classics as "Suzanne" and "Bird on the Wire". I soaked up "Best Of" for 3 months and then asked my wife for "more Leonard Cohen" for Christmas. She came through with the newly-released "Essential", which moves from the car to my computer as I go through my days. My favorites among the songs that aren't on "Best Of" are the uproarious "Everybody Knows", "Tower of Song" and "Closing Time". "I'm Your Man" relates pretty well to anyone whose "friends are all gone" and who "aches in the places where he used to play." Upon hearing "Hallelujah", I started searching my memory for where I'd heard the song--finally it dawned on me--"Shrek". And "Democracy" is an amazing look at the "USA" by one of our very perceptive neighbors to the north. The line about what goes on in the kitchen to determine who will serve and who will eat cracks me up every time. "Ain't No Cure For Love" is great too; it's all great stuff! I strongly recommend that anyone with an ear for singer/songwriters who doesn't already know Cohen to pick up "Essential" with your next mouse click or trip to the CD store.

I listen to this album constantly, which includes songs chronologically from the beginning of Cohen's career to his most recent work - beautiful melodies, intelligent lyrics, and the sweetest harmonies this side of heaven. What amazes me is that his voice becomes stonger, his singing more confident, and the arrangements more complex the older he gets. In his Buddhist practice, i believe Leonard has reached boddhisattvahood. He makes a fine example of just how hip an elder can be.

Leonard Cohen's music is a lot better than his share of the airwaves and CD bins in record stores would have you believe. The sometimes ironic lyrics, dour mood, and dated synthesizer backgrounds should not hold back anyone's appreciation for the craft that the man has created. Seemingly little known here in the U.S., his work has been covered by numerous other artists, with great results. REM's rendition of "First We Take Manhatten" has a more conventional rock n' roll feel than Cohen's original, but showcases nicely the range of the material in someone else's hands.

This collection spans Cohen's career, and is a great place to collect the better known work. In my case, it was an introduction to older music as well.