The essence of a musical genius
February 28, 2009
The Essential Leonard Cohen (Sony)
A musician's longevity - and this is Leonard Cohen's 17th album in 42 years - produces an immensely diverse fan base. It also produces different entry points to an evolving career. For baby boomers it was always Songs Of Leonard Cohen, released in 1967 with the unforgettable Suzanne as the enduring masterpiece. For many of the younger fans in the audiences that flocked to see Cohen's recent Australian concerts it was a more oblique contact - Jeff Buckley's or Rufus Wainwright's version of Hallelujah from Cohen's 1984 album Various Positions. There were probably even fans who first experienced the Cohen oeuvre from the unlikely vantage point of The Choir Of Hard Knocks. So on a 38-track overview, there will be something for everyone.
This is a personal selection by Cohen and so, implicitly, it offers a rare insight into his favourites and the albums he regards as minor. It is no accident that more than half the songs in the three-CD collection (21 of the 38 tracks) come from only four albums - Songs Of Leonard Cohen (five tracks), I'm Your Man (six), The Future (five) and Ten New Songs (five) - and that albums like Dear Heather and Cohen Live score only one. The end result is peerless. Although Recent Songs scores only two tracks, the collection includes the exquisite The Guests, with its melancholy strings and glorious female chorus, which would be essential in any Cohen fan's list of all-time greats.
There is more than just magic to Cohen's greatest songs. He is a true rarity - a poet who, deeply and effectively, integrates his words with his music. He is much, much more than just a lyricist. Take for example his two greatest songs - Suzanne and Hallelujah. In the first instance the lyrics, particularly those unforgettable images of "the sun pours down like honey" and "she feeds you tea and oranges / That come all the way from China" are set against music that rises and falls with a gentle, seductive wave-like motion. The effect, particularly for those who first heard the song back in the late 1960s, is so powerfully evocative that 40 years later it still evokes all the idyllic and romantic optimism of that era. It is also no accident that Cohen, knowing he didn't have the greatest voice on the planet, very effectively placed his limited vocals against a background of strings and a female backing chorus - a musical combination he continues to use today - which provided a depth and richness to the sound.
In the case of Hallelujah Cohen doesn't skimp on the backing. By 1984, when the song was recorded, his voice had dropped from that of a limited tenor to be little more than a smooth, dark growl but, enriched by what sounds like a hundred-voice choir, the song becomes a glorious, uplifting spiritual declaration of love for music.
If you want the essence of one of the greatest singer-songwriters, this is a near-perfect overview of a truly remarkable career.
Bruce Elder
http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainmen ... 07889.html
Goodonya Leonard! 
