Dear Heather

As a notoriously slow writer whose lyrics are carefully crafted—he began as a poet and novelist, after all—Cohen catches a pleasant groove and a team of co-workers that enable him to ease his critical guard and sing what's on his mind. Leanne Ungar, Sharon Robinson, and Anjani Thomas, credited with production and often arranging, set the stage and Cohen does his master-of-ceremony's best to give the results gravitas. There's nothing here on the mythic scale of "Suzanne," "Famous Blue Raincoat," or "The Future" but that doesn't defray from the impact of the slow, brooding "The Letters" or the sheer hilarity of hearing him spell out the letters of the title track.