Album Review : Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas (2012)
The immense popularity of Leonard Cohen is atypical to say the least. He is not a particularly impressive singer. He writes songs like country ballads from a century ago. They’re often without a proper chorus. Cohen’s fans (self-included) are attached to a character, first and foremost. To a man who lived to understand much of life and shared its deeper truths in a catchy and memorable format. This is what he does best, but it is not what he systematically does.
Seven years removed from financial ruin and in the twilight of his life, it is very much the best Leonard Cohen we get on Old Ideas. This comeback effort is absolutely stunning.
There’s anger and resentment on Old Ideas that have been absent from Cohen’s work since The Future, twenty years prior. The edgy, weary soulfulness he’s remembered for. Darkness is the most obvious example. It’s a straightforward, bluesy folk song about cynicism and hopelessness creeping up on you like a disease. If the melody feels familiar to you, it is probably because Cohen licensed it to a little Netflix show called Lilyhammer when it came out.
Amen is another standout track on Old Ideas. A 7 minutes-long meandering, formless ballad with an eerie, minimalist trumpet solo in the middle. It is perhaps his most intoxicating religious song, where he openly struggles with his faith given the terribleness of the human condition: Tell me again/When I've seen through the horror/Tell me again/Tell me over and over/Tell me that you love me then/Amen is as powerful of a chorus he’s ever written.
I’m not done singing the praises of this album. Different Sides is another contemporary classic, albeit it is more on the brainy, old school folk side of Leonard Cohen’s legacy. It is not that interesting musically, but it tells a riveting tale of ideological conflict while highlighting the vacuity of such struggle. It’s witty and profound. The opener Going Home also made me raise my eyebrows. It’s probably the best musical adaptation of what was meant to be a poem.
The weaker songs on Old Ideas are more forgettable than terrible. Crazy to Love You is very reminiscent of Dear Heather and this weird jamming vibe I didn’t care about. Banjo is lyrically beautiful and heartbreaking, but it’s a little heavy and wordy for a song. It doesn’t carry over well melodically. It’s about all the criticism I have. Even when the songs aren’t memorable, the powerful intimacy of late-era Leonard Cohen’s voice made them enjoyable.
Once again, I was extremely surprised how intoxicating Old Ideas was. It is a precise, minimalist and self-aware meditation on faith, failure and fatality. Twenty-first century Leonard Cohen was straight dope. I love his classics as much as the next guy, but some of them overshadowed how great his late-era material was. Not all of you would agree, but I would listen to Darkness and Amen way more than I would listen to songs like Who By Fire or The Partisan.
8.2/10
