- The Essential Leonard Cohen · 1984
- Songs of Leonard Cohen · 1967
- Various Positions · 1984
- You Want It Darker · 2016
- Songs from a Room · 1969
- Songs of Leonard Cohen · 1967
- Songs of Love and Hate · 1971
- New Skin for the Old Ceremony · 1974
- New Skin for the Old Ceremony · 1974
- Songs from a Room · 1969
- I'm Your Man · 1988
- Songs of Leonard Cohen · 1967
- The Essential Leonard Cohen · 1988
Essential Albums
- Leonard Cohen's voice may sound as ravaged as this midlife masterpiece's production is magnificent, but his couplets are to die for. "I've seen the future, brother: It is murder," he croaks on the title track. And of course, "There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in" ("Anthem"). Wit, profundity, despair, and hope vie for supremacy as female backing singers provide a Greek chorus on an album as timeless as a Sophoclean tragedy.
- Only a few years prior to the 1988 release of I'm Your Man, Leonard Cohen was no longer signed to Columbia Records in the United States. Yet, at 50-something, the Canadian poet staged a most unlikely artistic comeback with a song cycle as lyrically rich as his earliest, critically acclaimed work. The music corresponded perfectly, highlighted by shopping-mall keyboards and drum boxes ("Tower of Song") and disjointed back-up singers ("Jazz Police"). In this alienated environment, Cohen went to work less as a singer than a secret agent reporting on a world mesmerized by glitter and rouge. "First We Take Manhattan" is the opening tour de force, merging pillow talk with cosmopolitan crisis, whereas the hypnotic "Everybody Knows" rumbles with a refrain made menacing by Cohen's basso profundo growl. A romantic, he sings Federico García Lorca ("Take This Waltz") and offers "Ain't No Cure For Love" with the grace of an elder statesman.
- Released at the height of the hippie era, Leonard Cohen’s darkly complex debut sounded unlike anything else at the time. On “Suzanne” and “Sisters of Mercy,” the poet-turned-musician comes across like a man wandering the dimly lit alleyways between alienation and despair. But what shouldn’t be overlooked is the sheer beauty in Cohen’s vision. The way the harpsichord in “Winter Lady” dances across his leaden voice is one of those delicious little moments that help make the album so unforgettable.
- 2021
- 2020
- 2020
- 2020
Artist Playlists
- Meet the dark prince of the singer/songwriter realm.
- The singer/songwriter boasts a stockpile of sublime concert footage.
- Odes touched by darkness that shed so much light.
- Artists that moved the poet, novelist, and folk-rock legend.
- Icons and outlaws alike bow down before the master of melancholy.
Live Albums
- 1994
Compilations
- 1988
More To Hear
- Leonard Cohen’s classic means something different to everyone.
- Elton John honors two music greats who passed away this year.
About Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen was the most potent poet ever to find his way into the singer/songwriter world, possessing a lyrical flair that elevated the language of folk and rock, plus a mix of brooding mystique and arch attitude that made him an alternative icon. Cohen, born in Montreal in 1934, was a respected writer who published several books of poems and two novels before he ever recorded a note. It wasn’t until the 1967 landmark Songs of Leonard Cohen that the world heard his tunes and craggy but compelling baritone. He quickly reached more people as a songwriter than he ever had as a poet, and on songs like the much-covered “Suzanne,” his previous occupation served him well. Cohen stirred up images like no other songwriter, with lyrics full of darkness but also shot through with black humor. Despite the broad appeal of his debut, he remained a cult hero all the way through to 1984’s Various Positions—although that album’s “Hallelujah” would eventually become one of the most popular songs on the planet. But with 1988’s I’m Your Man, Cohen reinvented his sound, relying more on synthesizers than acoustic guitar, and the album sparked a renaissance for the 53-year-old songwriter, introducing him to a new generation. Jeff Buckley’s 1994 rendition of “Hallelujah” lit a slow fuse that exploded in the 2000s when the tune became one of the most widely covered songs of the era. Cohen gained in status, graduating from theaters to arenas even though his work remained as arch and sophisticated as ever. He remained a vital artistic force to the end, releasing the powerful You Want It Darker just weeks before his death in 2016.
- HOMETOWN
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- BORN
- September 21, 1934
- GENRE
- Pop