Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Dear Maggie,
I hope you are not the only one who will follow the link below, but I do know that the verses will resonate with you as with me.
Just for the simple photograph of the now elderly bard, Leonard Cohen appearing to look out from a bright white screen, this link is worthy of our attention.
It's a clean well thought out portrait of a man sharing his moody and onsightful views on life. We are not told who the photographer is, but I really like the stark and engaging portrait!
But there's much more for both the followers of this poet and those who appreciate insightful and wry observations of our passions and private longings and struggle with temptations, existence and finally surrendering to the inevitable decline and darkness.
I hope you enjoy this too!
Asher
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/.premium-1.749992
Leonard Cohen’s 'You Want It Darker': Still a whisperer, still a winner
Since its release at the end of last week, “You Want It Darker,” Leonard Cohen’s new album, has been praised by music critics all over the world. At a time when albums from other older icons are harshly criticized or received with a yawn, Cohen’s new material wrings out the superlatives.
The halo above Cohen has only grown brighter. Or to be more precise, borrowing from one of his most famous phrases, if there is a crack in Cohen’s halo, it’s a good crack that lets his great light out.
Related Articles
Before I listened to his new album, the collective genuflecting made me want to speak with a more reserved voice that reflects my attitude toward the singer. Cohen has never been my rabbi. His songs have far from captured my soul. His only album that stirs a sense of wonder in me is his first effort, “Songs of Leonard Cohen.” An eternal masterpiece.
For me, Cohen’s other albums, even the highly praised early ones, always contained a dose of dullness, even if under the static silence whispered a deep and enchanting movement of melody, lyrics and sound.
"At his best, Cohen is much more than a charismatic reciter of deep texts, but musically he’s not in the same league as other ‘60s greats. So the urge to stick a pin in Cohen’s halo was illuminated in a petty light when I began listening to the new album and heard his whispering voice.
The association this time was literary-cinematic. Cohen sounded like an Ent, the tree-like giants from “The Lord of the Rings.” The Ents are the oldest creatures in Tolkien’s mythology and their movements are very slow. But their huge steps are impossible to stop.
So from a musical perspective, is the new album a dull Ent march? Not at all. Hallelujah, you might say. The album has pockets of ennui, and it lacks the hypnotizing combination of silence and movement in his greatest songs. But “You Want It Darker” is a winner.
Leonard Cohen, right, in the '70s. Malka Marom
It turns out the word “darker” really is appropriate. This is an album soaked with death – on the verge of obsession and beyond. But at the same time, it has something lighter in the sense of its easy movements.
This is music of separation; Cohen has about 37 ways to get this message across. And though it moves at his characteristic crawl, it rarely slogs on.
The steps are very slow but light and creative. Cohen is a simple and wise lyricist. His son Adam Cohen is a simple and smart arranger. Together they are enlightened enough to put the small harmonic and rhythmic turns in strategic places.
“Only one of us was real” is followed by a harsh change of tone in “Treaty,” and then the words “and that was me.” And there’s the refreshing textual musical conclusion at the end of every verse in “On the Level.” And listen to Cohen’s voice break – but with a smile, not a wail – when he sings “Oh no no” in the wonderful “Leaving the Table.”
In one of the great lines in that song, Cohen sings “I don’t need a lover / The wretched beast is tamed.” Clear and sharp. He’s too old for sexual desire. It no longer controls him. It’s a big change from the past.
'You Want It Darker'
After all, Cohen is the poet of the spirit and the flesh. He doesn’t distinguish between the two great urges. For some listeners this combination is sometimes uncomfortable, but most listeners are captivated by it. In the new album, both of these desires are extinguished, both monsters are domesticated.
“Sounded like the truth .... But it’s not the truth today,” Cohen sings in “It Seemed the Better Way.” The search for truth that has guided him his entire life has reached its end with the intimate closeness of death. What sounds like the truth is not the truth, and maybe the truth is that it’s impossible to discover the truth.
Either way, the disappearance of the two desires makes his life’s journey easier. You can feel it in the thin smile on Cohen’s lips in most of the songs.
So ”You Want It Darker” is a good album. Cohen’s devoted fans will certainly be excited by it and will change the “good” to “great.”
I stopped before that point. In one of the songs, Cohen sings “I try but I just don’t get high with you,” and his musical limitations, even when he’s in fine form, make this verse reflect a major aspect of my take on Cohen."
I hope you are not the only one who will follow the link below, but I do know that the verses will resonate with you as with me.
Just for the simple photograph of the now elderly bard, Leonard Cohen appearing to look out from a bright white screen, this link is worthy of our attention.
It's a clean well thought out portrait of a man sharing his moody and onsightful views on life. We are not told who the photographer is, but I really like the stark and engaging portrait!
But there's much more for both the followers of this poet and those who appreciate insightful and wry observations of our passions and private longings and struggle with temptations, existence and finally surrendering to the inevitable decline and darkness.
I hope you enjoy this too!
Asher
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/.premium-1.749992
Leonard Cohen’s 'You Want It Darker': Still a whisperer, still a winner
Since its release at the end of last week, “You Want It Darker,” Leonard Cohen’s new album, has been praised by music critics all over the world. At a time when albums from other older icons are harshly criticized or received with a yawn, Cohen’s new material wrings out the superlatives.
The halo above Cohen has only grown brighter. Or to be more precise, borrowing from one of his most famous phrases, if there is a crack in Cohen’s halo, it’s a good crack that lets his great light out.
Related Articles
Before I listened to his new album, the collective genuflecting made me want to speak with a more reserved voice that reflects my attitude toward the singer. Cohen has never been my rabbi. His songs have far from captured my soul. His only album that stirs a sense of wonder in me is his first effort, “Songs of Leonard Cohen.” An eternal masterpiece.
For me, Cohen’s other albums, even the highly praised early ones, always contained a dose of dullness, even if under the static silence whispered a deep and enchanting movement of melody, lyrics and sound.
"At his best, Cohen is much more than a charismatic reciter of deep texts, but musically he’s not in the same league as other ‘60s greats. So the urge to stick a pin in Cohen’s halo was illuminated in a petty light when I began listening to the new album and heard his whispering voice.
The association this time was literary-cinematic. Cohen sounded like an Ent, the tree-like giants from “The Lord of the Rings.” The Ents are the oldest creatures in Tolkien’s mythology and their movements are very slow. But their huge steps are impossible to stop.
So from a musical perspective, is the new album a dull Ent march? Not at all. Hallelujah, you might say. The album has pockets of ennui, and it lacks the hypnotizing combination of silence and movement in his greatest songs. But “You Want It Darker” is a winner.
Leonard Cohen, right, in the '70s. Malka Marom
It turns out the word “darker” really is appropriate. This is an album soaked with death – on the verge of obsession and beyond. But at the same time, it has something lighter in the sense of its easy movements.
This is music of separation; Cohen has about 37 ways to get this message across. And though it moves at his characteristic crawl, it rarely slogs on.
The steps are very slow but light and creative. Cohen is a simple and wise lyricist. His son Adam Cohen is a simple and smart arranger. Together they are enlightened enough to put the small harmonic and rhythmic turns in strategic places.
“Only one of us was real” is followed by a harsh change of tone in “Treaty,” and then the words “and that was me.” And there’s the refreshing textual musical conclusion at the end of every verse in “On the Level.” And listen to Cohen’s voice break – but with a smile, not a wail – when he sings “Oh no no” in the wonderful “Leaving the Table.”
In one of the great lines in that song, Cohen sings “I don’t need a lover / The wretched beast is tamed.” Clear and sharp. He’s too old for sexual desire. It no longer controls him. It’s a big change from the past.
'You Want It Darker'
After all, Cohen is the poet of the spirit and the flesh. He doesn’t distinguish between the two great urges. For some listeners this combination is sometimes uncomfortable, but most listeners are captivated by it. In the new album, both of these desires are extinguished, both monsters are domesticated.
“Sounded like the truth .... But it’s not the truth today,” Cohen sings in “It Seemed the Better Way.” The search for truth that has guided him his entire life has reached its end with the intimate closeness of death. What sounds like the truth is not the truth, and maybe the truth is that it’s impossible to discover the truth.
Either way, the disappearance of the two desires makes his life’s journey easier. You can feel it in the thin smile on Cohen’s lips in most of the songs.
So ”You Want It Darker” is a good album. Cohen’s devoted fans will certainly be excited by it and will change the “good” to “great.”
I stopped before that point. In one of the songs, Cohen sings “I try but I just don’t get high with you,” and his musical limitations, even when he’s in fine form, make this verse reflect a major aspect of my take on Cohen."
