Hi beatingthelillies,
There are songs that are 'deeper' on this album, but for some reason the overall feel I get from it is that it also showcases quite a bit of LC's caustic, wry sense of humor. Because of that, the 'dark lyrics' recede when I listen to this LP. Maybe I'm spending to much time focusing on 'Memories', 'Fingerprints', and 'DGHWYH'.
Kindest regards,
Mary
Death of a Ladies Man
Re: Death of a Ladies Man
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Re: Death of a Ladies Man
I don't understand most people's criticism of this album. I don't think its perfect, but I also don't think its imperfections are the fault of Spektor. His production on the first three songs at least is absolutely gorgeous and don't just sound like the typical spektor "wall of sound." Really it sounds more like the production on a Flaming Lips album than anything by the Ronettes.The real problem with Death of a Ladies Man is Cohen's songwriting, which loses most of the complexity and intricacy of rhyme and image found in all his album both before and after. What your left with are songs that are more crass and overtly sexual than anything else LC's ever written; "Don't Go Home With Your Hard On" being the most obvious example but also "Iodine," "Paper Thin Hotel," "Memories," "I Left a Woman Waiting" all deal fairly explicitly with raw sexual desire/frustration.This is appropriate though considering the album's title. It becomes a sort of concept album which begins with the romantic and poetic Leonard Cohen image - as presented in "True Love Leaves No Traces" - is gradually stripped down to the dirty old man found on "DGHWYH" and who is eventually redeemed at the end of the title track (not sure where "Fingerprints" fits in this outline, part of the reason for its being my least favorite song on the album). As a concept its brilliant, but it the result of stripping away Cohen's complexity is that we're left with some clumsy, sex-obssessed verses that could have just as easily come from 8th grade locker room as they could have from LC the poet. As dificult as it is to criticize a songwriter who idolize, I think this is the truth, and we should shy away from unfairly placing blame on Spektor.