leonardcohenforum.com

We've opened this new thread for YOUR after-release comments!
The other thread started very early and is already quite long.
(There is also a separate thread for links to and quotes of media reports at viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36877)

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.

love treaty very much

Complete credits to each song at Prof. Graf's Cohenpedia: http://cohenpedia.de/2016-youwantitdark ... stof-graf/ (chapter IV).

In the same image from the booklet - a sensitive note from LC...

I must say I am so grateful that we were given this wonderful album. I hear it again and again. My dear friend Chris, came by, and she could not stop weeping so touched by the record.
Thanks to Leonard Cohen, and To Adam Cohen. This is such a gem
Peter

String Reprise is one absolutely beautiful piece of music. Hats off to Patrick Leonard for this arrangement and for producing such a moving track.

And this album is a just a masterwork. It's hitting all the spots.

Now the album is officially out, I can't wait to see the response it gets.

yopietro wrote:String Reprise is one absolutely beautiful piece of music. Hats off to Patrick Leonard for this arrangement and for producing such a moving track.

And this album is a just a masterwork. It's hitting all the spots.

Couldn't agree more. The reprise is both a beautifully realised piece of music and a respite at the end of the album, a - admittedly somewhat muted - chink of light shining through the fog of doubt that has pervaded.

In terms of You Want It Darker itself, for me it unquestionably asserts the power of the album as an art form. From the cover art to the production to the song choices and performances, the whole piece has a coherence and unity that is staggering, and a step up from Popular Problems. As fantastic as that album is - and I far prefer it to Old Ideas - the artwork looks like a three year was fighting a losing battle with MS Paint, and there's a more ragged, looser feel to the songs and the production.

Theres still a couple of months to go of course, but YWID is album of the year for me - and in a year that has given us such dark masterpieces as Bowie's Blackstar and Cave's Skeleton Tree, that's some achievement.

I arrived my office this morning, eager to get down in my chair, get my headphones on and shut down the world outside.
Had my first three rounds of the album now, listening intensly.

No doubt in my heart, this is a masterpiece, I'm putting this one high above OI and PP, even if I loved both those albums. This one hit me as almost only SoLaD has done before.

This one is so pure, so dark and so personal.
And so close to death.

I'm not ready to reviewe, this is just my first impression.

(Not gonna get anything done at work for the next hours, though...)

I loved the poems, and they left an impression on my mind even before I listened to the songs. The most intriguing seemed to me to be 'Steer your way'.

As for the music, my favourites were 'Treaty' and 'Leaving the Table'. His singing in 'Leaving the Table' is so heartbreaking!

This album has created many emotions from the first sound- I had gooseflesh all over the body. The songs are so beautiful, so touching, heartbrakingly sad - I only didb't cry all the time listening to them, because I was at work.
Thank you so much for this, Mr. Cohen!

1. You Want It Darker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6fvzGIBfQ
2. Treaty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU5FPAR7ass
3. On the Level - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0uq5cgd2So
4. Leaving the Table - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbjRTN3-jCg
5. If I Didn't Have Your Love - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHgCXhY6kZ0
6. Traveling Light - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okaqXB6Ns5s
7. It Seemed the Better Way - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nyMrjGX2vk
8. Steer Your Way - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM71N3TchfQ
9. String Reprise / Treaty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbamvzYDnOE

Again a masterpiece!
We love the music, texts and the deep dark voice of Leonard.
Very touching and humoristic at the same time!
It makes us laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.
Nice cover with sigaret, beard and glasses : darker is not possible.
Thank you Leonard, Adam, musicians and synagogue choir!

Sorry if this is brief.
Got the physical cd today and played it so far once on a rather good hifi .
First hearing , since I resisted the streams.

It's rather good isn't it !
The depth of lyrical content and Leonard's voice match.
Love the production - don't have any initial dislike of production that i had to get through on PP.
It sounds beautiful, though lyrically it's not always an easy listen! Rewarding .... but not easy.
Maybe the easiest song is ' if i didn't have your love' which is another of Leonard's 'sad but true' songs about love.
So much is about psychological preparation for death.

As with all of Leonard's recent albums it is rather brief ,you get to the end and think ' is it over already?'

.......but in that time you go on quite a journey.

Quite enjoying the new album, more than even the last two. I feel this one has a fuller more interesting production. Am curious, would everyone here say TREATY is a direct rewrite of ANTHEM? To me, melodically it sounds nearly exactly the same, yes? Am curious as to the history of the song, if it is deliberate or just a case of an artist "self plagerizing" a little bit. Any thoughts?