Customer Reviews

Death of a Ladies Man

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

While usually panned in reviews, this album should not be casually dismissed. It is unquestionably the pivotal moment in Leonard Cohen's career. For those not familiar with his work, Cohen's sound has two very distinctive periods: Namely, the albums that came before "Death of a Ladies' Man" and those that came after. Prior to this album, Cohen recorded in a folk singer style with little more accompaniment than an acoustic guitar or soft piano. His poetic lyrics and folk genre made for a natural comparison to Bob Dylan, more than any other. After "Death of a Ladies' Man", his work changed completely. His vocal style became some wholly unique cross between Sinatra, Barry White and Johnny Cash intermittently splashed with minimal synthesizers and drum machines. Many fans are bias to one era: either 'Old' Cohen fans that enjoy his classic folk work, or fans of his later style that is difficult to accurately compare to any other recording artist.

For the album "Death of a Ladies' Man", Leonard Cohen paired up with producer Phil Spector. It is evident throughout the album that Leonard is searching for a new voice. Both 'True Love Leaves No Traces' and 'Paper Thin Hotel' show audible signs of Spector's 'wall of sound' handy-work but are more noteworthy for showing Leonard's old and new vocal styles contemporaneously on the same album. Where 'I Left a Woman Waiting' and 'Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On' are neither his old vocal style nor his new one: 'Left a Woman Waiting' shows a little of both, while 'Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On' is something else entirely.

The very minimal musical compositions of the new style that emerged after this album bear little resemblance to "Death of a Ladies' Man", but neither do they show any resemblance to the work that came before it. It is my hindsight analysis that this is the album Cohen had to make in order to break with his musical past even if it does not sound like the music he has made since he came out on the other side.

If you don't own any Leonard Cohen and want an album to introduce you to his work, this is NOT the one. You can get a broad sampling of both his older and newer sound on "The Essential Leonard Cohen". If it is his older folk sound you are looking for, then the 1975 release, "Best of Leonard Cohen", is a better choice. If however you are already familiar with the older titles like "New Skin for the Old Ceremony" and "Songs from a Room" or later works like "I'm Your Man" and "The Future" then it should be worth your interest to hear the album that bridged the two parts of his career.

NOTE: You will not hear a single song from "Death of a Ladies' Man" on other Leonard Cohen collections. None of his greatest hits or best of releases ever includes any songs from this album. For all the failings of "Death of a Ladies' Man" it is the unquestionable pivotal album that divides his earlier and later work.

Clearly this is a controversial album among Leonard Cohen fans. Honestly, it's a bit hard for me to imagine anyone who's not already a Cohen fan finding anything redeeming in it. The music is an interesting approach--for Cohen, that is--but it's by no means a sonic masterpiece, and whatever irony there is in placing Leonard Cohen in the Wall of Sound quickly wears thin. The set of lyrics is, typically, beyond any other artist, but I would recommend reading Cohen's selected poems and lyrics in the book Stranger Music over purchase of this CD. I suppose the only other perspective I can add is this: if this were not Leonard Cohen, would this CD even be interesting, let alone worth listening to? For me, the answer is a resounding no.

Alas, even Cohen, perhaps eager to shed his folk-poet garb from his earlier (and far more interesting) albums, fell under the spell of Phil Specter's "midas touch" in the studio, although Specter rarely, if ever, was able to turn anything into gold. Instead, it's an experiment gone horribly wrong, and surely Cohen's worst album, his verse is lost in a sea of orchestral rock, effects and screams, an aimless epic...

I now own every Leonard Cohen album. I love them all, though some more than others, of course. It is a great shock to me that this album has gotten so many bad reviews. It is ALWAYS in my top 3 favourite albums by Leonard (usually swapping places with 'Various Positions' and 'Recent Songs'). The title track itself is without doubt my 2nd favourite LC track, after 'Ballad of the Absent Mare'. It seems like people want Leonard to stick to only 2 styles (the folk style previous to this album, and the later style after this album). Well, this album is the pivot and I love it for that.

Despite what anyone says, this is NOT THAT different froma typical Leonard album, and Leonard's beautiful, poetic and (I always thought) strangely cryptic - like a huge puzzle to be penetrated, that takes a lifetime to solve - lyrics are all present and correct. Yes it has much more sound in it than "normal", but "normal" is not a word that should ever be used in connection with Leonard's music, imo. The at first bizarre combination of Leonard's voice, his poetry, and Spector's starling soundscape sounds just great to me. Almost psychedlic, trippy, haunting. Wonderful.

I don't even know why I am being defensive in this mini-review, the album is excellent. And contrary to what others have said, this *IS* the Leonard Cohen album I would recommend to those unfamilar with his music. And if that is sacrilege, sue me. I love it nonetheless.

I consider myself a Leonard Cohen fan. Still, I heard this album only twice in my life. The first time, as soon as I bought it, full of excitement... The second time, about four years later, only to realize it sounds just as bad as the first time...
To me, it was a total dissapointment. Leonard Cohen's voice is squashed under Phil Spector "wall of sound" and both sound dull, uninspired and incompatible. The subtle eroticism of Leonard Cohen's lyrics gives way to gratuitous raunchiness.

And the few fine moments (which there are, I must admit) are not strong enough to justify spending your money on this album.
Rush to get all of his catalog but, please, pass this one by.

This album comes in for so much stick, yet when you take it out of the context of Cohen's catalogue, you can see that it is a great album in it's own right. Each song is lush sounding, as though Spector is parodying himself at times with echoing drums wind sections, but the songs are suited to this. I hear after the collaborator's fall out, they were left with only guide vocals, but they more than do their job. Cohen sounds seedy, at times, a little too seedy (I Left A Woman Waiting) but you can't help but admit that this is a great collection of songs and Cohen sounds like he's having fun. Great comedy moments too here, like Bob Dylan's backing vocals on '... Hard On' and the whole everything in one pan aspect gives you the same pleasure as listening to The Clash's London Calling. Something which will appeal to even non-fans

I don't know how people could hate this cd. It's a great piece of work by Leonard Cohen. It's nice to hear a bit of different instrumentation backing him on his usual brilliant songs-- and it seems to fit the lyrical tone of the songs perfectly. It's not even like the music is way out there-- it's just that there is actually more music in the background than his usual stark, barren musical landscape backgrounds. I guess negative reviews are coming from fans who never want an artist to try a different sound and stay exactly the same. I love it when an artist tries something new-- especially when the results are as great as this cd. So if you're a Cohen fan, don't be scared away by negative reviews and go out and buy it; if you already own it listen to it again.

Right come on, this album's production fits perfectly with the lyrics, and its about time precious fans looked beyond what they know and expect. "and since she spoke the truth to me, i tried to answer truthfully, whatever happened to my eyes, happened to your beauty" is heartbreakingly honest and the music only adds to this low down honesty. If Cohen disagrees then Spector has more vision than him, which is amazing considering its his lyrics! it doesn't have to be minimal to be moving.

I love Leonard Cohen's stark poetry. I love Phil Spector's overheated orchestral fantasias. Many negative reviews of this album lay blame for its "failure" at Spector's feet. True, the combination of Leonard's words and Spector's music may be unusual and even disconcerting, but for me the end result is a ragged, absurd glory. A fantastic, underrated piece of work. Don't listen to it with any preconceptions and you may appreciate it.

Cohen is looking at himself as santa claus with a razor blade, his gift is small slices of cheezy pie. He cuts himself down to the top 20, just another singing slave. The death of the beautiful man singing sweetly of Suzan, and sisters of mercy. He accepts himself as a cheap seller of soft images. He's had his day and now his fashion is out. It's funny, beautiful, and sad, everything a great albulm holds. It's words are mostly from Cohens old poretry books and the muisic is the from the moment right before a dress rehersal rag.