LEONARD COHEN レコード& CD

Review: Realistically speaking, we could write essays for years on the joy of Leonard Cohen's music, poetry, attitude, and poignancy. Without question Canada's greatest gift to music, and the world (Bryan Adams withstanding), Songs of Love and Hate was the iconoclastic artist's third studio album and remains a pivotal work, albeit one that clearly showed global divisions.

Released in 1971, it would fail to make much impact on the US charts, reaching a paltry 145 on the Billboard 200, but in other regions it was a different story. UK and Australian fans bought enough of it to hit number 4 and 8 in their respective album charts. Many European countries also embraced the record. Quite what America's issue was we will never be sure of, although this is certainly Cohen at his all is lost, all is doomed, that's the way it goes best - gentile instrumentation meets soft bombshell songwriting

Review: If there was ever an artist suited to a posthumous release it's Leonard Cohen. The gravel-voiced baritone never made light of situations in life, so "voice from grave" fits him down to the ground. Moreover, if there was ever an artist we needed more music from it must be Cohen, one of the most gifted songwriters of the 20th Century, poet laureate of the human condition and the good and evil men and women do. This collection of leftovers from a relentlessly incredibly career has been pieced together with a little help from friends and family still cursed to walk this troubled Earth. Son Adam Cohen led on the project, with former-collaborators such as Beck, The National's Bryce Dessner and Feist called in for services. Not that you'd tell. The finished product is timeless Cohen business - a gentile and humble powerhouse you can't help but feel profoundly moved by.

Review: Whilst it's now impossible to view Leonard Cohen's final album outside the context of his passing, the fact of the matter is that this lugubrious sage had been ruminating on the nature of endings and goodbyes for much of his near half-century of artistry, and it's hard to think of a figure who's been quite so eloquent and wise in this endeavour. 'You Want It Darker' seem may a fitting way to bow out, but moreso it bears testimony to the fact that Cohen's questing spirit remained undimmed right until the last, and his travails in the exploration of faith, romance and the human condition were never to lose their finesse and bite.

Review: This September 21st, Leonard Cohen hit 80 years of age, and what better way to enter his ninth decade on earth than with another reliably dark and insightful series of grave reflections on the human condition. And indeed, with his stark ruminations backed with skill and taste by arrangements from erstwhile Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard, he arguably hasn't sounded better in around half that time. Popular Problems is as witty, as wry, and as eternally affecting as we've come to expect from this troubadour. Indeed, while Cohen continues to make records as fine as this one, balancing out taste and refinement with gravitas and humour, we'll be forced to agree with his assertion herein: 'The party's over, but I've landed on my feet'.