Customer Reviews

Old Ideas

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is a truly great Leonard Cohen album in my view - something I've not been able to say for too many years. The music often sounds delicate but has a laid back robustness about it, too, with his trademark simple melodies and a very welcome varied sound and style, with elements of country, blues, gospel and rock. There are also the beautiful and familiar female backing vocals, and some simply magnificent work from a varied band - the trumpet on "Amen," for example, is unexpected and absolutely spellbinding.

Cohen's voice these days has passed through the Whisky & Cigarettes stage and is well on the way to a Chronic Bronchitis sound, but he still has that fabulous depth and resonance beneath the weariness and the creaks. He hovers between singing and speaking for much of this album even more than previously, but as a friend once said to me, "No one can sing a Leonard Cohen song the way Cohen himself can't." How true. He is miked very close so, particularly when listening on headphones, it really feels as though he is present and whispering into your ear.

All this is perfect for the songs here, whose lyrics are Cohen at his best: thoughtful, allusive, melancholy, witty and sometimes provoking. The religious imagery he has always used so brilliantly is well in evidence, and it is striking how much of it is now specifically Christian. Broken relationships, suffering and death have always been in the corner of Cohen's eye whatever he is writing about. They are often in plain sight here and are treated with insight, resignation, compassion and beauty. The old witty twinkle and his self-deprecatory streak are still there, though, and shine through what is often a very elegiac atmosphere. He still has that fantastic ability somehow to get to the heart of things both when he's speaking straightforwardly and even when direct meaning is elusive. These are songs to take into your heart, nurture and allow to grow there.

I think that several of these songs, including Amen, Show Me The Place and Different Sides are likely to become Cohen classics, but there is nothing to be sanitized and exploited by talent-show winners here and if you don't like Leonard Cohen this album certainly won't convert you. However, those legions of us who know that he was born like this, he had no choice, he was born with the gift of a golden voice will be delighted and deeply satisfied that that voice, both in what he writes and how he performs it, has lost none of its magnificent lustre.

I recommend his album wholeheartedly. I suspect that it may be a masterpiece

This is from Banjo, one of the songs on LC's great new album, Old Ideas.

It's a broken banjo bobbing
On the dark infested sea

It's coming for me darling
No matter where I go

Its duty is to harm me
My duty is to know

What's going on here? What is the dark sea infested with? Why is the banjo broken, menacing? How come it's after the 77 year old songwriter, intent on harming the gracious and self deprecating old fellow?

We never learn. Perhaps this is a merciful thing...

Over the course of his lifetime Cohen's ever more gravelly baritone has at times been the voice of the prophet, the muse, the lecher, the lover, the poet, the madman and oftentimes, the priest. All are represented in Old Ideas, a remarkable new collection of songs by the master.

This is a starkly existential album. It traces a thin line along the edge of an abyss. But even as it does so, it holds out the hope of redemption and the promise of restoration - a coming out of the darkness and into the light.

Darkness is one song I just can't get out of my mind. It's a taut and sinister twelve bar that's at any moment ready to snap. The tension is unbelievable:

I caught the darkness
It was drinking from your cup
I caught the darkness
Drinking from your cup
I said, "Is this contagious?"
You said, "Just drink it up."

Meanwhile Leonard finger picks insistently, Neil Larsen weaves a haunting refrain on the Hammond B3, and when Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters kick in with a vocal of urgent and barely restrained desire it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

How about this from Different Sides:

I to my side call the meek and the mild
You to your side call the Word
By virtue of suffering I claim to have won
You claim to have never been heard

Both of us say there are laws to obey
But frankly I don't like your tone
You want to change the way I make love
I want to leave it alone

The production of this album is exceptional. The arrangements are spare and precise, tightly wound, and flawlessly executed by an outstanding group of musicians, several of whom accompanied Cohen on his recent epic world tour.

Another song I just can't get away from is Show Me the Place.

Show me the place, help me roll away the stone
Show me the place, I can't move this thing alone
Show me the place where the Word became a man
Show me the place where the suffering began

The piano is distant even as it carries with it an abiding sadness and pain.

And then Come Healing:

And let the heavens hear it
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb

Behold the gates of mercy
In arbitrary space
And none of us deserving
The cruelty or the grace

O solitude of longing
Where love has been confined
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind

O, see the darkness yielding
That tore the light apart
Come healing of the reason
Come healing of the heart

There's no doubt about it. Old Ideas is a masterpiece.

Dear Music Appreciators,

I come to this album as one who knows little about Leonard Cohen and his music. I've admired both the Jeff Buckley and Brandi Carlile covers of "Hallelujah," and I remember liking the Concrete Blonde cover of "Everybody Knows" when it appeared on the PUMP UP THE VOLUME soundtrack. I know Cohen is Canadian and that he is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singer-songwriters of our time. Despite the countless times I've read his name when reading about music over the years, I just never got around to him. Some of you may consider this an unforgivable admission of musical ignorance, while other Cohen newbies like me can take solace in the knowledge that they are not alone.

And now I see Leonard Cohen, seventy-seven years old, sitting in a black suit, black hat, and black sunglasses on his enigmatic, black-shadowed album cover at the top of the Amazon sales charts and I can't help but think "it must be time for me to get around to Leonard Cohen..."

Hearing OLD IDEAS has taught me that popping my Cohen cherry so relatively late in my musical fandom is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because apparently I have now just skimmed the surface of a true treasure trove that I can savor digging into deeply for the first time. A curse because these are treasures that could have been with me all along. I have been missing out until now but it is time to make up for lost time with Leonard.

I imagine true fans of the man will already know all about this album. They will already know that this is another great one and that it's worth the time they will put into it. Casuals and newbies who are wondering about what the true fans already know can know the following now:

This is a musical album of uncommonly unaffected poetry and grace, encompassing a variety of musical styles, and delivered in a gravelly speak-sing baritone. A rich combination to be sure, and it all goes down like an acquired taste - whiskey, or coffee, or...caviar.

At first listen the most immediately accessible songs seem to be both the first ("Going Home") and the last ("Different Sides"), and over the course of the eight tracks in between Cohen confidently plays the game of "Operation" on the body of the human condition.

If you're wavering at all on this purchase, ask yourself if you're the kind of person who might enjoy an album that opens with the singer talking about himself in the third person:

"I love to speak with Leonard, he's a sportsman and a shepherd, he's a lazy b _ s t _ _ d living in a suit..."

Basically, this is music for smart people. And if you're still reading this then either you're already a smart person, or, after hearing this album (like me) you'll be that much closer to becoming one...

Sincerely,

Constant Listener

Carl Sandburg defined poetry as what is seen in that brief moment between the opening and closing of a door. I have listened to Leonard Cohen for much of my adult life and reveled in the mastery and consummate skills shown during the recent tour, especially Live in London. Frankly, I thought that was close to the end of the third act. I knew he cut part of the tour after he injured his back and thought that was the shadow descending. Thus, I was completely unprepared for this recording.

A friend told be to rush to hear it. He had listened to it while driving and had to stop by the side of the road: to think, to feel , to cry. I have just listened and simply cannot recall its equal. This is the essential man and the singular human. Everyone will hear the words through a different ear. It has the deepest sadness I have heard spoken to music in the modern era. " Crazy has places to hid in" and so does genius.

One review said all must be right with the world that a 77 year old man could give such a gift of brilliance. This is what words and music were meant to convey. We live close to Montreal and go to the neighborhood that Leonard lives in. I have always imagined seeing him walk down the street and , in some ways, wait for the waters to part. This is a very rare human being and this is a remarkable and touching reminder of what life can give us. If you have lived life at all, this collection of songs will change you.

This album was previewed on the Guardian newspaper web site and from the first song to the last I was completely enchanted. I immediately pre-ordered the album, which is my favorite Cohen album to date. I especially love "Amen" and "Crazy to Love You", but when I play this (and I am playing it a lot)I am not even tempted to skip any of the songs.

Leonard Cohen has released his 12th studio album, the intensely moving Old Ideas. Not one of his albums has ever cracked the Top 50, and those few of his songs that are well-known by the mainstream public, particularly the omnipresent "Hallelujah," are well-known for being covered by other musicians. He's now 77 years old, and so many of those from his generation are gone, reminiscences of the past or even decades passed on.

But here we have Cohen, there on the album's cover. He's dressed in a suit and a tie, wearing his signature fedora and along with dark shades. He's just sitting on a wooden chair, a slight grin on his face and reading a book. It's an appropriate pose for the man he's become, the thoughtful narrator of insightful truths who earns in acclamation what he lacks in popular recognition.

A few years ago a younger friend who was new to Leonard Cohen's amazing body of work asked me which of his songs I liked best. That was a hard question to answer, as there have been so many good ones, but after thinking for a few minutes, I responded by telling her that I had been recently listening to "Dance Me to the End of Love" a few times, the first song in his 1986 album Various Positions, and that the lyrics were pure poetry.

And now on the first track of Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas, his first studio album in eight years, we hear these words, and they are almost a poetic sequel to that earlier work and so many others:

Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
To where it's better
Than before

Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without the costume
That I wore

We are presented here with the dramatized image of a "lazy bastard living in a suit," as Cohen puts it, and he progress to examine the futile longing for "a manual for living with defeat," a man trying to deliver the need of a private truth. We hear reflection of times past, of the artist wondering how long he can keep it going with songs like "Amen," with a banjo on its fringes, its horn solo and words of the Lord's retribution.

Like reflective poetry set to song, which it is, we hear Cohen's baritone striking a meditative note is each of his songs:

1. Going Home
2. Amen
3. Show Me The Place
4. Darkness
5. Anyhow
6. Crazy To Love You
7. Come Healing
8. Banjo
9. Lullaby
10. Different Sides

There's an almost religious finality in "Show Me the Place," with Cohen looking for answers from above, with his smoky baritone crooning lowly over his piano. We hear the intricate guitar finger work in "Darkness," reminiscent of the artist's earlier works from years past, with Cohen's voice recollecting the darkness "... drinking from your cup."

"Anyhow" is the perfect lead-in to "Crazy To Love You" where the agonized and lovelorn lyrics seem to reflect on a larger-than-life relationship, but had its downsides: it turned out as a "souvenir heartache" in the end.

His entreaties for reparation in "Come Healing" are there, and with the backup by its female harmonies, Cohen appeals to "see the darkness healing that tore the light apart," his heart calling out for redemption as a penitent hymn. And we hear a bit of lyrical play-acting in "Banjo."

The "Lullaby" track offers something to guide us through the long night, which Cohen, with his melancholic yet hopeful voice and lyrics, has been doing so well over the decades. And in the closing song, "Different Sides" we hear of the discusses the opportunity of staying `good' in an often-hard world, and the effect of sex in a relationship.

Throughout the album, even with its reflective and often redemptive tone, Cohen's bad boy audacity and often-sardonic tone that he refined decades ago is still there. No matter how many times you listen to these, you cannot help but realize that first and foremost, Cohen is a poet. Old Ideas isn't all about loss, infidelity and appealing to a supreme being. The things that made Cohen vital for decades are there: cynicism, love, cravings, remorse, suffering, optimism, and yes, a bit of hamming it up. He offers us vocal images that can range from reflective to biblical epiphany and apocalypse, and even a bit of mischievous sensuality. It's all here.

There have been other memorable albums from Leonard Cohen in the past, and speaking subjectively, at the top of the list would be The Essential Leonard Cohen, for within this two-disc set are those songs which are considered by many to be his true classics. Ever since hearing "Suzanne" on the radio many decades ago, this listener has been a fan, and that song is the first track of this album, along with "Bird on the Wire", "Chelsea Hotel #2", "Hallelujah", "Dance Me to the End of Love" and so many more. It's a career-spanning collection that was originally released in 2002, all tracks from his studio albums. For those new to Leonard Cohen and wanting to learn about his earlier offerings, one could scarcely do better than this.

Cohen has left an imprint on music that spans across over forty years of music history, and he's been a powerful inspiration for numerous musicians. Over four decades after his first release, "Songs of Leonard Cohen," he's back conveying material that's a match for the complexity and clout of his first solo record, while staying as alive and remarkable a poet as ever.

As perhaps a footnote to all of this, it should be said that when this listener received the CD, there was a pleasant surprise. In the liner notes we find the lyrics, as expected, but it's like a separate book of poetry to read them. Along with these are spread sone of Leonard Cohen's original artwork, along with photos of the handwritten notes that he composed during the making of this album. The CD itself has the drawing of a woman, the same one that's in the liner notes with "Different Sides." Have posted a simple photo of the liner and CD here.

Old Ideas is a reflective album from an artist looking back in the autumn of his years, contemplating on good and bad recollections from other times, yet it also has a real twinkle in its eye, so to speak... and it's one of Cohen's best.

2/2/2012

Not one to write my thoughts on music , too personal . With Leonard's latest offering I must . Great emotional voice , wonderful back up singers and instrumental sections that are perfect . Amen is so good . If you can not give this 5* turn off you radio . As good as The Future that will always be a favourite . A legend still .

As a long-time Leonard Cohen fan, it is quite remarkable to see that this great new CD is currently Amazon's #1 seller. If you check out Apple's iTunes
Top 10 charts, it is either #1, 2 or 3 in almost every country. Cohen newbies will not be aware of the fact that his albums have almost never reached the heights
in terms of sales. But something has changed - maybe a record company that has actually promoted him, or a public that is finally prepared to pay attention to music that goes beyond the usual happy pop formula.

Leonard Cohen's "Old Ideas" is nothing less than a musical Masterpiece. I was introduced to his music very recently by other reviewers right here on Amazon and i am more than grateful for it........As soon as i heard his voice for the first time a bit before the Christmas holidays, i just knew i would love his music, not only he is a real artist but he is also respected and praised by others in the business as well, like Lou Reed and Bob Dylan and other very talented music icons.

I quickly started researching and digging to see if this could get even better and it did......In a few weeks i was able to fully appreciate the solidity and Openness of his song writing which is not only brilliant but also very real...sometimes too real and even shocking..... The "New Skin For The Old Ceremony" album was the first one i got and after listening to it i can honestly say i immediately wanted more.... i quickly got his first album "Songs Of Leonard Cohen", the outstanding "Im Your Man", the almost perfect "The Future", Ten New Songs, Death of a Ladies Man, Songs from the Road, Dear Heather and finally just bought my copy of "Old Ideas" and here i am.......completely hooked.......and at a loss for words....

The songs are mostly slow but extremely rich with beautiful arrangements, compelling melodies and killer song writing. Leonard's voice is very deep, soothing and indescribably beautiful.....It is the voice of a man who lived life to the fullest, with good moments in his life, as well as bad moments, excess and regrets too.....i think that is what Leonard is sharing with us when he's writing......it is the ultimate voice of knowledge and wisdom.....some of those songs got me quite emotional......

The sound quality is amazing. We can easily hear everything that's going on and some of those arrangements are just gorgeous. The whole record is excellent and can easily be played from start to finish, no need to skip tracks. The highlights of this record for me personally would be the wonderful "Show Me The Place", The angelic "Come Healing" and the amazing, lazy-groovy "Banjo" song. Really cant get enough of those.....
Overall, if you like Leonard's music, i would say this one is an "essential" album for you to get. I think Leonard is still a ladies man......the songs are amazing and his voice is better than ever. Don't hesitate, just get it.......you won't be disappointed...

Personal recommendation: Play it very loud or use headphones to enjoy even more.....

ENJOY!!!!

It's been far too long. I had reservations. For the last 30+ years his STUDIO albums were poorly/over produced, destroying even great songs. We had to wait for better live or even covers, to fully appreciate the songs. The Future might be the exception, but still overly produced, which killed many otherwise great songs.
This is a great album. Stunned!