In which a cult hero goes out in style
Leonard Cohen – Live in London (Columbia, 2009)
Rare is the cult icon afforded such a gracious public display of affection in their lifetime. Cohen was a notorious recluse for the bulk of his career, releasing music and touring with such infrequency it furthered his mythos as a brooding song master hiding in a faraway monastery. But after a backstabbing manager sold the rights to his catalog and embezzled most of his retirement funds, a then-74-year-old Cohen embarked on a multi-year world tour to replenish his accounts and give wanting fans their due. This double-disc recorded at the O2 Arena clocks in at just under three hours and debunks all preconceived notions. That God-like baritone is glum in tone but powerful and smooth in delivery thanks to the daily rigors of putting on a good show. The set list zig-zags from his 1967 debut, features an obligatory-but-inspired performance of “Hallelujah” and features a track from his 2001 comeback. Lyrical themes include lost love, personal redemption and quasi-spiritualism. The band is tight and in fine form, the angelic backup singers are ebullient and tranquil while Cohen’s well-rehearsed stage banter is charming and earnest. Everything here drips with an irrepressible sadness, but let this definitive performance stand as a testament that he died knowing others shared in his loneliness. GRADE: A
Key Tracks: “Hallelujah” / “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” / “Suzanne”
Leonard Cohen – You Want it Darker (Columbia)
His death-bed voice at its most guttural, Cohen bids adieu singing about the subject matter that defined him from Day One — troubled love as spiritual torment as death. That he was aware of his impending fate with the grave while recording these nine hymns makes the material all the more pressing and his grim-reaping disposition never more appropriate. Only son Adam serves as producer and puts dad’s voice up front, softening its rough edges with gospel organ, a Gregorian choir and tremolo guitars that expertly toe the line between weepy and professional (“Damn right,” says Roy Orbison). If it sounds like a funeral mass, it’s because that’s the point. If it sounds like Cohen at long last finds resolution that’s just the finality of the moment fooling you. “Treaty,” finds him angry and tired from a tumultuous romance and he gives up on love entirely a few tracks later. The religious overtones throughout are apparent — always have been with him — but the bitter lyrical barbs aren’t inherently anti-God. Instead, they are the resolute rhymes of a man refusing to go gently into an afterlife that waits for us all. Don’t play it for fun. Play it in hopes you too can stare down eternity with as much bravery. GRADE: A-
Key Tracks: “Treaty” / “Traveling Light” / “Out of the Game”
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