Old Ideas [Import]

 

 

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Leonard Cohen has been old for a long time, yet it seems that something even older has been speaking through his voice for even longer. "I know my days are few", says the voice in one of these new songs, and those of us past 60 will perhaps best appreciate that feeling. But a deeper and far more universal feeling has come across in Cohen's music ever since his first album, and it's never been more authentic than it is in "Old Ideas".

What's old about this record, and yet again renewed, is "the penitential hymn" and the plea for mercy from an unbending Law and a Lord whose grace is given but rarely. Cohen's persona is at once the victim, the perpetrator and the observer, but never the innocent bystander, of life in this world -- rather a withstander, who stands with the rest of us even when we stand against each other. His time-ravaged voice, his words polished as rocks left behind by a glacier long ago, "gather up the brokenness" of all our hearts.

This time around we have ten songs of three to five minutes each, and every one is deeply resonant. As usual with Cohen, but more than ever here, the boundary line between speaking and singing, between poem and song, almost disappears. Yet this album is surprisingly tuneful -- not upbeat of course, but achingly melodic, and the arrangements bring this out with a variety of contributions from solo violin, cornet and other instruments. Indeed this is more varied musically than many of Cohen's records, each song having its own sound, and as we learn from the liner notes, its own set of producers, arrangers, engineers and musicians collaborating with Cohen. The women's voices (including those of Dana Glover, Sharon Robinson, the Webb Sisters, and Jennifer Warnes) are especially and variously wonderful here. (The liner notes also show us, by including scanned pages of Cohen's notebooks, the seemingly endless revision process of the poet -- and though all the lyrics are printed here, they don't always match the words you hear.)

In the one song which most resembles `the blues', the singer has "caught the darkness" like a contagious disease from the lover he's singing to, almost grimly proud that he's "got it worse than you." Yet in other songs we see "the darkness yielding," even if it yields only to the irony of being "saved by a blessed fatigue". But for me, the most intriguing of these "old ideas" is the intense dialogue between two sides of Leonard Cohen which we hear in the first and last song ("Going Home" and "Different Sides"). Here again is the old Cohen who is most universal when most personal, whose songs somehow let us hear something new just when we thought we'd plumbed the depth of their mystery. Old ideas? As old as "the wind in the trees talking in tongues."

This review will address the big question: is Old Ideas a proper Leonard Cohen album like The Future, his last (20 years ago) great effort? The only thing on the two studio albums subsequent to The Future that matched any of his highs was "In My Secret Life", deceptive opener to 2001's Ten New Songs. That track had rinky-dink instrumentation and eternal truth in just the right combination, the kind that floored listeners of the album I'm Your Man.

It's of course silly to complain that Laughing Len sings about death too much. Death is one of the life forces of poetry, Leonard's other great line of work. Death is an understandable preoccupation of almost all art, and just about every kind of music apart from the fluffiest pop consciously drenches itself in it. So, that Cohen studies the process and ideas of death is unremarkable in itself.

The old ham has been closing down, ageing and dying with particular vigour for nearly quarter of a century, though. It's a paradoxically sincere shtick, and it began in earnest with "I Can't Forget" and "Tower Of Song".

Death is closer than ever. Leonard Cohen has had to come out of retirement for Old Ideas and these poetic last throes are, in line with the natural order of things, more real than ever.

How well put are the goodbyes on Old Ideas, though, given that Leonard Cohen said them all a few times a long time ago, eased himself into retirement, artistically said hello to death, all that? Do "Going Home" and what follows make for a curious encore?

Leonard Cohen is markedly paradoxical. His lavish humility tells you he's long sustained a tremendous ego. If he leaks self-aggrandisement in the studio, he does so most in his penchant for anthems. A couple turn up on Old Ideas. The problem with "Show Me The Place" and "Come Healing" is if anything musical rather than lyrical. It's OK, understandable. Anthems and hymns involve a precarious bit of magic to work fully. Think of the rinky-dink form, in terms of the accompaniment and the word, of "If It Be Your Will", one of last century's great hymns.

Old Ideas is overwhelmingly easy to accept all in all. The accompaniment is natural. More important, Leonard Cohen does what you're supposed to do, takes the old to make it new. Most important, the ideas that he manages to make new are several of the wisest, as well as some of the oldest, that we have.

This review is too long already. I'd rather you find the magic in "Amen", "Darkness", "Crazy To Love You" and all the others yourself anyway. I just wanted to help point you in the right direction: Old Ideas is as good as any great Leonard Cohen album. You have nothing to fear if that's what you want, exactly that to love. I trust you know how much a great Leonard Cohen album means, how dearly to hold something like that.

" I love to speak with Leonard,
He's a sportsman and a shepherd
He's a lazy bastard
Living in a suit

But he does say what I tell him
Even though it isn't welcome
He just doesn't have the freedom
To refuse "

... and so begins Leonard Cohen's new album, "Old Ideas". Is it the voice of his higher Self, his conscience or even the voice of God himself, speaking about the singer-songwriter? Does Cohen see himself as a reluctant conduit for the Divine Will? There have been many such allusions in his songs before, so why not especially now? After another such verse Cohen's own "voice" itself answers,

" Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Some time tomorrow

Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain

Going home
Without the costume
That I wore"

With this song he sets the stage and calls the tune for a deeply moving, entirely naked meditation on the gooseflesh-inducing nearness of mortality, HIS mortality. For "Old Ideas" is just that - a characteristically candid and disarmingly clear series of thoughts that can only come from a deeply inward artist as he looks squarely into the promises, sadnesses, mysteries and even reliefs, of death. After all, could that be her, the black Angel of Death on the cover, with her shadow looming discomfortingly close to Cohen as he sits, seemingly unconcerned? "Old Ideas" are the thoughts and ruminations that are privy to the elderly - for their special place of experience can only truly be known deep in the flesh and heart of that time of life. Far from maudlin or morose the songs on this album positively shine with and otherworldly light that can be seen on the other side of the words. And because of the extraordinary talent that his remarkable man has, those thoughts and "ideas" take on an immediacy and a palpable effect that goes very, very deep inside when heard, no matter what your age. You are stirred to the core and find yourself really 'getting it' on a very profound level. Fans of Leonard Cohen know this and need no convincing. Besides, what else would you expect from one of Canada's greatest poet laureates?

Nothing is terribly new here yet that is not what one expects from Cohen anyway. The form, obviously, and as naturally as it has been throughout his career, is less important than THE WORDS. The music is there, a lot of it co-written with synthesizer whiz, production maven and film score writer, Patrick Leonard. It's a testament to that man's talent and impeccable taste that his input on "Old Ideas" is so completely sublimated to the cause. His work is so much a part of Cohen's that you would never guess in a million years that he was heavily involved in the project. For me that is of particular note, as it indicates his dedication and commitment to Cohen's intent. Many fine musicians contribute to the album yet it all comes off with zen-like simplicity and fresh immediacy. Sharon Robinson, of course, reprises her key role as singer and arranger of the female back-up vocals, an important element that carries the main melody that Cohen 'riffs' over. And for all the apparent simplicity each one of the songs is a world unto itself. Repeated listenings really brings this out.

The songs are great right from the beginning and even though the CD is only a 'standard' 45 minutes in length you come to the end of it transformed a little each time. For there simply is no one else on the English speaking planet who gets so deep into the soul and brings it all out into the light, fears, failures, tragedies, epiphanies and all, like Leonard Cohen. However, there is a lot of light as well. That Cohen's work STILL reverberates with peerless revelations of all the glorious contradictions of the human soul is a testament to the greatness of his art, his light. It's an eerie light, a rarified pre-twilight radiance that brings out subtleties of thought, feeling and psychic intuition that almost no one else can evoke. It's always what I've been most impressed and moved by in his brilliant work.

There is reconciliation with loss ( "Darkness" ), a continuing wish for love ( "Amen" ), an admission of submission to God ( "Show Me The Place" ), a plea for forgiveness in love ( "Anyhow" ), a simultaneous confession of the insanity of love and resigned joy in it anyway ( "Crazy to Love You"), a profound call for reparation of the mind, body and soul ( "Come Healing"), an exposed and seemingly absurd dream imagery that would suit David Lynch ( "Banjo") a lovely 'benedictus' ( "Lullaby" ) and a final pointed questioning of, even defiant disagreement with 'the methods' and authority of God ( "Different Sides" ). This man, like Beethoven, will go out of this world with one fist raised at the face of The Diety and a tender profundity of love for all of life and experience at the same time. Whether the 'darkness got him' or not, Cohen retains a unique vision of life that is both an almost surrendering relief in sometimes crushing adversity and a near mystical delight in the most common but finely, finely nuanced variations of the human spirit. It's an incredible symbiosis and there is no one else who gives it voice like Cohen.

"Old Ideas" is the work of a master, an increasingly evanescent master on the verge of 'going home', yet one with an eternal and electric 'now' to reveal before that time. For no matter how old Leonard Cohen might be his mind is more fresh, present, passionate and rigorously vital than a stadium full of many boasting youth. He simply isn't done yet. For as he says on the back of the insert,

"Coming to the end of the book
but not
quite yet
maybe when
we reach bottom".

Get this.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Lenny Cohen lives on
I bought this album recently and am completely hooked. I've been listening to it over and over again. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Bhaskar Majumdar

5.0 out of 5 stars A deeply thoughtful album
Leonard Cohen again shows why poetry and music are such a potent combination in his hands. He just keeps getting deeper into the heart of meaning and thought. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Gary Borattto

4.0 out of 5 stars Leonard Cohen fidèle à lui-même
La livraison a été rapide et sans avarie et m'a permis de faire l'écoute du CD rapidement. Read more

Published 1 month ago by chalif02

5.0 out of 5 stars du Cohen à l'état pur
C'est vraiment du Cohen, pas d'imitation, mais avec une recherche au niveau des arrangements. Extrêmement intéressant et qu'on aime plus à chaque écoute !

Published 2 months ago by Grandourse

4.0 out of 5 stars Leonard`s last hurrah?
I am a faithful fan of Leonard Cohen and it was a must for me to buy his new CD. I`ve enjoyed it, but it doesn`t compare with the amazing London tour DVD that has given me --... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mrs Olga E. Neal

5.0 out of 5 stars bijou
Après toutes les années à attendre un nouveau CD
de Monsieur Leonard Cohen celui-ci se surpasse encore
une fois.Musique comme paroles. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Monique Arbour

2.0 out of 5 stars not his best
I was disappointed in Mr. Cohen's new CD. I've always been a fan and "The Future" is one of my top 10 discs. Read more

Published 2 months ago by alwayswright

5.0 out of 5 stars Like an old friend
It was like meeting an old friend I hadn't seen much of for the last 25 years, and we were able to pick up just where we left off. Some friends are just like that.

Published 2 months ago by Liz

5.0 out of 5 stars Old guy returns
Off the top you better be fan - got this for my wife who is a fan - voice is even growlier than in the past - not a compilation (again)

Published 2 months ago by walter

5.0 out of 5 stars comme un grand vin...
Comme un grand vin, Old Ideas a été préparé et nous est offert comme un pur chef-d'oeuvre. Read more

Published 2 months ago by ROGER LARRIVEE

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