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That's how it goes
Leonard Cohen has some senior moments on his new CD
LEONARD COHEN
"Dear Heather"
(Columbia)
Do artists fade when they age, or do they focus?
Leonard Cohen does a bit of both on his latest album, which arrives one
month after his 70th birthday.
On "Dear Heather," you'll find less of Cohen than on any of his previous
recordings. The songs are shorter, there's more writing by others, and
different singers take up more space.
Worse, there aren't any pieces as sweeping as Cohen classics like "Tower of Song" or "Hallelujah" (which has lately become pop culture's most sacred song).
Yet the album has its brief peaks of brilliance. The best of them seem to
concentrate Cohen's skills - and take advantage of his advanced years. In "Go No More A-Roving," Cohen matches his music to a Lord Byron poem that addresses the waning of a sex life. ("The sword outwears its sheath," he sings with dry wit). In "Because Of," he tips his hat to the many women who've bedded him later in life "because of a few songs wherein I spoke of their mystery."
Ah, the perks of a poet.
In two songs dedicated to departed friends - "Nightingale" and "To a
Teacher" - Cohen sings of his mentors and associates in vivid language. In the latter, he compares shadows to "day-weary bats" hanging in the rafters.
Cohen's music follows his usual patterns. We get the expected waltzes,
ballads and jazz interludes, all humming with the conspiratorial intimacy of
Cohen's dusty husk of a voice. More than ever, he relies on his female
backup singers to highlight the songs' moods, from nurturing to mocking.
Several songs don't work at all. The title track has a baffling staccato
vocal from Cohen and robotic emissions from the backup singers. The cut "On
That Day" proves, yet again, that the subject of 9/11 can undo even the best writers. Its line about a "wounded New York" sinks into something
unthinkable for Cohen: cliché.
The decision to use other people's poetry in places - and to cover
"Tennessee Waltz" for a finale - could be viewed as a cop-out. Or, more
generously, it could be seen as a loosening of Cohen's ego and a sign of
maturity, an opening up to other people's voices.
The taste Cohen shows in choosing his collaborators and the care he displays in his better writing still don't add up to a great record. But those
efforts do produce a few moments worth savoring from this aging sage.