New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Leonard Cohen's last studio album (2016)
User avatar
jarkko
Site Admin
Posts: 7302
Joined: Thu Jun 27, 2002 1:01 am
Location: Espoo, Finland
Contact:

Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by jarkko »

Friends, we have opened a new thread for YOUR after-release comments.
Please go to viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36880 and post your own feelings!

(There is another thread for links to and quotes of media reports at viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36877)
1988, 1993: Helsinki||2008: Manchester|Oslo|London O2|Berlin|Helsinki|London RAH|| 2009: New York Beacon|Berlin|Venice|Barcelona|Las Vegas|San José||2010: Salzburg|Helsinki|Gent|Bratislava|Las Vegas|| 2012: Gent|Helsinki|Verona|| 2013: New York|Pula|Oslo|||
User avatar
jarkko
Site Admin
Posts: 7302
Joined: Thu Jun 27, 2002 1:01 am
Location: Espoo, Finland
Contact:

Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by jarkko »

Leonard and Adam have sent me the complete lyrics to the songs on the album.
The document shows the original poems and the changes made to the song version.
I have posted the lyrics in the way he sings them.
The lyrics are on The LC Files at http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/darker.html

The copyright note: Copyright 2016 by Old Ideas, LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission

Thanks to Leonard and Adam for sharing the texts with us,
and to Robert and Caryn for solving the copyright issues.
1988, 1993: Helsinki||2008: Manchester|Oslo|London O2|Berlin|Helsinki|London RAH|| 2009: New York Beacon|Berlin|Venice|Barcelona|Las Vegas|San José||2010: Salzburg|Helsinki|Gent|Bratislava|Las Vegas|| 2012: Gent|Helsinki|Verona|| 2013: New York|Pula|Oslo|||
User avatar
Joe Way
Posts: 1216
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2002 5:50 pm
Location: Wisconsin, USA

Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by Joe Way »

Thank you, Jarkko as usual for all you do for us!

I have resisted listening to the streams as I want to have it all to myself.

I am going tomorrow morning to B Side Records in Madison to purchase it. I have purchased every album beginning with "Recent Songs" in 1979 at this venerable record store. I feel so fortunate to still have it here amidst the online purchasing frenzy.

I'm not sure how soon I will get to really listen to the album as Anne & I have a wedding to attend this weekend in another town.

I like to listen multiple times before commenting so it may be a few days. I know that I've heard it once and really liked it. Generally it has taken me sometime to warm up to the new albums, but this one I liked at that first listening.

Joe
"Say a prayer for the cowboy..."
User avatar
B4real
Posts: 7180
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 4:49 am
Location: Q'ld, Australia

Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by B4real »

Thanks for those lyrics, Jarkko :D

I'm very soon going to get the music to go with them!
It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to B4real ~ me
Attitude is a self-fulfilling prophecy ~ me ...... The magic of art is the truth of its lies ~ me ...... Only left-handers are in their right mind!
User avatar
jerry
Posts: 466
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:23 am
Location: New Jersey USA

Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by jerry »

I got the cd this morning. I'm having some trouble getting into it. There seems to be a sameness to many of the songs. Not a lot of variety musically. I hope that changes.
Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
Leonard Cohen
User avatar
Hartmut
Posts: 1438
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:08 pm

Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by Hartmut »

B4real wrote:About "aerial"
[...]
the more ethereal notion of the archangel Ariel
Are we sure he's not singing "Arielle"? 'Cause that would make a better rhyme ...
yopietro
Posts: 110
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:03 pm

Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by yopietro »

gretabertella wrote:
yopietro wrote:From the title track to this last verse, the question of faith on this album seems to be conveyed from quite a different place than that from which Leonard sang on If It Be Your Will or Hallelujah.
That's exactly what I meant.
I'm not quite sure that's a faith issue. I don't think he lost his faith [in God, Life, Love, whatever: I have no name for it, as Faust says]. I think Leonard is just looking at God from a different point of view now. Like he could finally forgive himself and find God within himself.
That's why - I think, there are so many references to Christ throughout the album. LC has always liked Jesus, but this time, well, he likes him more...
I also think that in It Seemed The Better Way, Christ himself is talking (or, better, thinking), while praying with the Apostles during the last supper. And who's Christ? A man; who has the divine within himself but, at the same time, who has to die. Such as to say a man who believes but who's still a man and doesn't want to die. But to believe means to accept the truth of your own death. So, Christ is a contradiction [a paradox]. We all are.
Yes, we all are paradoxes indeed. But I don't hear him evolving closer to Jesus. More moving away from the promise of divine salvation in any form.
Post Reply

Return to “You Want It Darker”