Customer Reviews

Ten New Songs

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

In terms of production and instrumentation, Leonard Cohen retired to Florida 20 years ago. I'M YOUR MAN was a truely great album despite suffering from synth abuse. THE FUTURE had the same malady, but once again the outstanding quality of the songs saved the proceedings. 10 NEW SONGS breaks no new ground in terms of cheesy prodution and yet once again, the lyrics play hero to yet another damsel in distress.

Sure, he whispers and croaks in septagenarian mockery of Barry White. But lyrically Cohen's sharp as ever, and that's how one should approach this album. It's basically a slim volume of new poems with obligatory musical accompaniment. Armed with lines like "I fought against the bottle but I had to do it drunk" he still hits the weary mark of the heart. Sentiments like " Love went on and on /until It reached an open door" don't hurt either.

Suffice it to say I'm a fan. Though I generally find solace in the dark acoustic majesty of SONGS OF LOVE & HATE, Time goes to show that you can't keep that kind of intensity up forever. The presence of Sharon Robinson is also a welcome replacement to the chorus of tipsy Baccanals Cohen has utilized in recent years. Her souful croon goes to show less is truely more. When she sings, "You kiss my lips and then it's done" a title like BOOGIE STREET takes on a much more ominous meaning---and the old CHELSEA HOTEL Cohen shines on through.

Stand out tracks for me are IN MY SECRET LIFE, THAT DON'T MAKE IT JUNK & BOOGIE STREET. Though there's no surpises, I can't say I'm disappointed. 10 NEW SONGS is just another remarkable page in the forgiving, loving voice Cohen found in THE FUTURE.

I have been a Leonard Cohen fan for some time now, and allow me to say - this collection of songs may be some of his best. From the title you notice a new plain simplicity. It's no secret that Cohen has been living in "isolation" for the past several years and you get a sense of his new enlightenment.

Gone are the many references to God. Enter an almost subdued album full of pain, anxiety, and Love (of course). Gone are those few back-up singers that could test the ear. Enter one voice that blends well with Mr.Cohen's. One thing that seems to be most constant in Cohen's albums is the infamous drum machine. Well, it's here again. Most of these songs are "slow" and it turns out to be great back-round, rainy day, and late night music. Some stand out tracks would be:

The first - "In my Secret Life". Classic Cohen here. Let's be honest folks, we don't buy his albums for the music - we buy it for the lyrics. He attempts to paint vivid pictures, and we succumb.

My personal favourite "By the River Dark" is an amazing trancing hypnotizing dark song. One of his best in a very long time. You'll want to keep listening to it over and over again.

Well thanks, for reading this. 5 stars for lyrics, 5 stars for Cohen's deep broken voice. Cheers.

Stripped down to its essentials, this album of "Ten New Songs" shows Leonard Cohen at his most austere and brilliant, with work that shines brightly as poems set to simple melodies, but which do not always succeed as music.

Overall, however, there is little not to like here. Although I loved the background vocals of Perla Batella on Cohen's earlier records, Sharon Robinson does a great job of crooning harmonies with the monotoned artist, and her production of these tunes is nothing short of magnificent. The whole thing has a rich, full, disciplined yet leisurely sound that manages to seem precise and somehow loose at the same time.

Some have criticized the instrumentation and singing on this album, but such carping really is unjustified. After all, no one listens to Bob Dylan or Townes Van Zandt for the quality of their croaking out lyrics or the tunes they play. It is the words that matter, and on "Ten New Songs" Cohen proves that he is easily in their league as a writer. And it is oddly appropriate that these tracks are very different from the almost weird optimism of "Closing Time" and "Democracy" on "The Future" when it was released in 1992. Nine years later and into the 21st century, Cohen appears to be in a more reflective mood. The change is indeed welcome. Especially under the current circumstances, with the nation now at war and in a recession, a bit of thoughtful perspective is not only instructive but a relief as well. As the man says, "May the lights in the land of plenty shine on the truth someday."

For what it's worth, I believe that the best tracks on this record are "Alexandra Leaving," "In My Secret Life," "That Don't Make It Junk," "You Have Loved Enough," and of course the tune quoted above. "Love Itself" is good, too. On the other hand, "A Thousand Kisses Deep" came across as a retread of "Waiting For A Miracle To Come," and "Boogie Street" and "By The Rivers Dark" strained for originality as they tried to capture the alternately buoyant and depressed beat in their creator's apparent heart of darkness.

Those are minor complaints, however. In general, these "Ten New Songs" were worth waiting almost a decade for, and 20 or 30 years from now, when no one can remember Britney Spears or J-Lo, this is the music that people will play as an archive of how they could find contentment and peace even in an autumn of fear. For that reason alone, you should give the new Leonard Cohen album a spin. As long as you do not expect a toe-tapping series of catchy pop tunes, there should be something here that you will enjoy. Yes, maybe it is a little too serious in places, but it also combines a cynical dry, world-weary sense of humor with a soothing tenderness that is all too rare in this strange day and age. Relax, and grok the fullness. ...

After 9 years, some of it spent in a Zen monastery, he's back !
Back with an incredibly beautiful CD...smooth, slow and mellow. These songs are so quiet and understated, it's just short of listening to silence. The arrangements are simple, and done by Sharon Robinson, who also produced, programmed, and performed the music, co-wrote the songs, and who's very lovely voice is a complement to Cohen's, but kept mostly in the background, making for a perfect balance.

These are poetic and thoughtful songs to contemplate the mysteries of life by, or maybe just to sit and watch the grass grow by, which may be the same thing...it will definitely take its place up there with "I'm Your Man" as a favorite CD.
Welcome back Mr. Cohen, we missed you.

My other favorite Leonard Cohen record is The Death of A Ladies Man, which is a very different cd in every way. Or at least in every way but the one that really matters, which is Leonard Cohen's plain spoken voice singing those startling words with such rich melodies.

This cd is as simple and stripped down sounding as any contemporary cd I own. It might as well have been an acoustic guitar solo record but instead Cohen chose the cheapest , most obvious Radio Shack keyboard sound you can imagine. And I'm sure this will put some people off this cd but I believe the reason he did it was to speak in the most mundane, common language while speaking in the most elevated, trancendental language.

Throughout the cd, his voice is echoed by Sharon Robinson, his producer, who adds a dry, simple harmonic richness that rubs up against Cohen's typical dry rasp. I find this perfect, though I'm sure there will be those who don't. It is reminiscent to me of The Death of A Ladies Man in the bold simplicity of the production, though 10 New Songs is much more of a stripped down feeling.

You will never hear songs from anyone else like By the Rivers Dark or, especially, Alexandra Leaving. I don't know how to do a comparison here, because I don't believe anyone else has written songs that are even similar. How many artists can you say that about?

Finally, the album ends with what strikes a jarring note in our current atmosphere of patriotism, and I'm very sure that he meant it to. The last song, The Land of Plenty, is like a prayer for truth in an atmosphere of propaganda. "May the lights in the land of plenty shine on the truth someday." I don't even know that I agree with this, but I do know that no one else is really saying anything like it with sincerity and genuine hope. And thats why I need to hear Leonard Cohen's not so perfect voice.

I was hooked on his music the first time I heard "Suzanne" on FM radio lo those many years ago and his new offering is on a par with anything he has ever done. There are songwriters and there is Leonard Cohen. I will always remmeber when I used to put his music on for my friends while we were growing up in the early 70s. They would want to jump out the window. "He's so depressing," they'd say. Nonsense. His music is gorgeous and rich. He writes the most beautiful and spiritutally honest songs of anyone alive. "In My Secret Life" is an instant masterpiece. There is much to commend this cd, which I just received about three days ago and have listened to nothing else since. Perhaps one is not always in the mood for Leonard Cohen, but listening to his unique music and poetry is one of life's great joys. The world is always a better place when there is a new Leonard Cohen disc to listen to day and night until the mood lifts and it's ok to settle for ordinary stuff again.

It's been a very long time since listening to an album for the first time made me cry. I buy a lot of CDs and while I am enriched by the variety I select I sometimes miss the intimacy of the way we got to know new records in high school when we could only afford to buy ONE once in a while. Ten New Songs immediately felt intimate. The first two songs alone are worth the price of the CD, and then it gets better.
Some customer reviews here have said "we" don't buy Leonard Cohen albums for the music. I disagree. And on this album in particular the moody and spare music perfectly complements and enhances Cohen's incredible rich, haunting, world-weary and ultimately compassionate delivery. The words are no more important than the spiritual energy the SOUND of this album puts forth.
I have loved Leonard Cohen's music since Songs From a Room, etc., in the late Sixties and while I appreciated his mid-period albums, his last couple have been a mixed bag. This album is exceptionally satisfying for its consistent quality, mood, and musical tone.

Make no mistake, this is a masterful album, but it is Leonard Cohen with a difference. He has pared away a great deal, including a great deal that his fans have always loved: most of the lush and startling imagery, the intense eroticism, the smoldering anger at the world's ingrained injustice, most of the irony, and the artistic ethic which had always prized unslakable longing as the compass directing us to what is beautiful and sacred.

Those things are largely incompatible with serious Zen practice, and this album makes it clear that Cohen's practice has been serious. There's a phrase for people who throw themselves into meditation and come out with a taste of enlightenment and a jargon-heavy religious vocabulary; the roshis say that they have "the stench of Zen." There's none of that neophyte heavy handedness here. When Cohen wryly observes "I fought against the bottle, but I had to do it drunk," he is offering a classic koan about the impossible job of Buddhism - using our unenlightened desire for enlightenment to eliminate desire itself. When he continues, "I took my diamond to the pawnshop, but that don't make it junk," it's a reference to a major Mahayana scripture, the Diamond Sutra. His unpretentious images get it all across effortlessly, whether the listener is familiar with such esoterica or not.

I'm glad there's no stench of Zen. What I miss here is the "stench of Leonard." But the man has moved on. He has achieved a kind of peace with himself, one which seems bleak on one listening and comforting on another. These ten new songs exhibit a relentless honesty, in a voice that speaks to us from the other side of a vast gulf we feel we too may have to cross. Again and again, they manage the trick of both renouncing all the highs and lows of life and accepting them.

My favorites are 'Love Itself', a journey past the edge of the universe and back; 'By the Rivers Dark', a harrowing sequel to the 137th psalm; and two songs that, if you'll pardon the oxymoron, are heartbreaking in their objectivity: 'Here It Is' and 'Leaving Alexandra.' But ask me again after the next two dozen plays.

In October 2001, his adoring legion of fans finally received the third installment of the revamped, synthesizer-infused second phase of rock-poet, Leonard Cohen's career. The nine-year gap between releases can be accredited to Cohen's long stay at a Zen-Buddhist monastery, adopting a life of meditation and reflection. The mind-set of that environment is reflected several ways on Ten New Songs: the secluded recording sessions (Almost all of Cohen's accompaniment comes from back-up vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, cowriter and producer, Sharon Robinson); the ever-placid pace of the music; the spiritual nature of songs like "By the Rivers Dark" and "Love Itself" and the album's considerable increase in reflection and introspection. Where on 1988's I'm Your Man and 1992's the Future, Cohen often criticized society, on Ten New Songs the focus has been shifted to the intimate as Cohen evaluates the nature of living on tracks such as "Here It Is" and "A Thousand Kisses Deep" and his own role in it on tracks such as "Boogie Street" and the gorgeous "In My Secret Life." Obviously, Cohen had gathered much insight during his retreat from music. Ten New Songs is the distinctive, engaging and deeply inspired follow-up for which we have patiently waited and hoped.

I didn't think it possible that songs like this could still be written. McCartney, Dylan, Jagger/Richards, only seem to be able to echo their past greatness; perhaps because they never left it. Then, from out of nowhere, barely to be seen in a dark corner with a keyboard, drum machine and a couple of backup singers, an aged, husky-voiced man is "back down from the mountain" with the Essence fully intact--a miracle? A Prophecy? A message from the Enlightened One? Try all that plus great, perhaps his greatest, sonwriting ever and you have "Ten New Songs" by Leonard Cohen. Anybody who knows truly great songwring is drooling over these songs right now, and hopefully learning every note.