Leonard Cohen albums poll

well it pains me to say it but I do have to agree with Geir.

btw Geir you need to get over to the Ask Geir thread, there are some outstanding questions there.

i love death of a ladies man, but didn't vote for it. as shakey's vote shows, it's the album for people who aren't big fans of cohen's other work -- either the delicate arrangements of the early stuff or the slimy synth pop of the 80s stuff.

I voted for it. It's my favorite. All his other records, while amazing, make me too sad. That one is sort of sad but in a happy, silly, drunken way.

Perhaps we should be asking why the record with "Jazz Police" got 2nd place!

btw Geir you need to get over to the Ask Geir thread, there are some outstanding questions there.

better yet, go there and stay there.

geir has only made one post in this thread which I happen to agree with, should I get out of here as well then

Recent Songs should've done better and I'm Your Man should be wayyy lower.

the right album won imo

as shakey's vote shows, it's the album for people who aren't big fans of cohen's other work

yeah I am not being a contrarian, it is genuinely the work of his I enjoy the most. I find the baritone+acoustic guitar sparseness and general humorlessness of his early records genuinely irritating in their "I AM SERIOUS ARTISTE" presentation. he has tons of wonderful turns of phrase and some striking melodies but, for example, watching early clips from his career of performing these songs he looks like a really sad statue. totally blank/motionless. I find myself waiting for a pigeon to land on him and poop on his shoulder.

The only post-70s stuff I've heard of his are the original version of "Everybody Knows" (don't care for it) and the cassette that my mom bought of "The Future" which I found unbearable.

In general I think he's a good songwriter who is usually not the best presenter/vehicle for his songs. Spector collab really bears that out imho.

The very end of the title track on DOALM is so great, the way it just gets slower and slower and dreamier, the whole thing just evaporating into a fizzing cosmos.

I can't separate his droll, gravelly timbre from the arrangements, especially in the post-'88 songs. His voice started to SOUND like a cheap $15 Casio synth -- a huge plus.

general humorlessness of his early records

gtfo they're full of jokes they just haven't been telegraphed by the production for you

Steven Wright stole his schtick amirite

general humorlessness of his early records

does not compute

He's definitely funny sometimes, but are they really FULL of jokes?

by songs of love and hate i'd say yes. not so much JOKES but lots of wry humor.

Doesn't this man ever rest? A new round of European tour dates for the autumn announced today.

well he's broke so no

is he still broke? might've thought that last world tour would've replenished the coffers. he was selling out huge places.

yeah he doesn't need to tour any more, the last round of activity has seen to that. he's obviously doing it for love.

its crazy to imagine my 80-year-old father in law undertaking something like touring, but I guess Cohen must be in pretty good shape.

think you guys may be overestimating how much touring brings in

think you may not be entirely clear what "broke" means

did i vote in this, songs from a room got robbed ROBBED

EARLY (LEONARD) COHEN v LATE COHEN

Four votes for Songs from a Room is wtf.

Too much? Or not enough?

Not enough.

His most successful album in the UK, perhaps (got to no 2, as did Old Ideas). Perhaps it's lack of success elsewhere (outside of Canada) is a reason it polled low?

even more befuddling is this

Death of a Ladies' Man 8

Yeah, not enough

I'm drunkenly moping in a Songs of Love and Hate shirt, so I agree with the top answer. The rest not so much.

i agree with these results but i think ten new songs should have at least ten votes

interesting, say more about that

10ns is a masterpiece

I probably wouldn't have voted for it but 0 is painful

I like five of the Ten New Songs but it's one of those times I thought getting someone else to write the music -- even if that person is Sharon Robinson -- produced a lethargic record.

I think I said upthread (and many years ago) something to the effect that 10 New Songs is his best mood music album, and the lethargic quality actually feeds into that a lot. I think that dynamic of barbed, whispered lullabyes over soft somnambulant keyboards on the one hand seems like a kind of hack's idea of late era cohen, but on the other, well, sometimes I like to be fed lines by hacks.

Obviously the last few albums have also leaned hard into that post-I'm Your Man noirish sound, but none with the same air of massaged consistency that I'm sure many find boring. But it's probably the Cohen album I reach for most often (translation: I am old and sad and need comforting).

i love the ten new songs vibe. a thousand kisses deep was used to great effect in 'the good thief', which is the first time i heard cohen from that particular style, having really only known his acoustic work and a few choice '80s cuts.

tim otm, there's an aesthetic continuity to it that's kinda like being folded up in velvet; it's what i want from the future but that record distracts from it with its covers. i also think "in my secret life" and "alexandra leaving" are unmatched in his catalog, as songs and as poems; they're in many ways his most crisp compositions, a style he arrived at imo by way of "anthem" and "tower of song," and which he continued to build on in the last run of records

a bit from me this am:

Ten new songs, recorded virtually alone in his house, whispering so as not to disturb the neighbours, the sprechgesang never more intimate, and how one song comes back to haunt another, both written in common meter (amazing grace how sweet the sound) so you know it's really One Old Song.

which I guess was my way of saying tim otm, though I couldnt have known it at the time

Every song y'all praised on TNS wold be a keeper, and "In My Secret Life" and "A Thousand Kisses Deep" are all time. Also:

a thousand kisses deep was used to great effect in 'the good thief',

otm. I can't think of the song w/out remembering the movie (which deserves more love btw).

A great line I had forgotten from "That Don't Make It Junk" (on 10 New Songs):

"I fought against the bottle... but i had to do it drunk."

Such a beautiful song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU5FPAR7ass

indeed

What's wrong with Jazz Police? It's eccentric and likeable.

it's a bit noisy

"Jazz Police" and "Boogie Street" are two rare duds for me.