Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
NME.COM feature on Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas album including album review, artwork, tracks, listen now, tour dates, discography and more.
Album Review
Leonard Cohen - 'Old Ideas'
Cohen has lost none of his passion
You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but when the hound in question is a lyricist and songwriter of such magnitude as the one and only Leonard Cohen , it’s perfectly acceptable for them to attack your soul with the same sweet sledgehammer they’ve been wielding for the last 45 years. At the grand age of 77, Cohen has lost none of his passion – which, as usual, is...
- Jan 27, 2012
More Leonard Cohen Reviews
Festival International De Benicassim
Ah yes, the Spanish festival with guaranteed sun that’s a stone’s throw from the beach. Bliss. Castello De La Plana, Spain (July 17-20)
- Aug 1, 2008
Leonard Cohen Tickets
| Date / Time | Artist | Venue | Town/City | Seetickets | Viagogo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 21, 2013 00:00 | Leonard Cohen | The O2 Arena | London |
Buy Leonard Cohen Tickets |
Buy Leonard Cohen Tickets |
| Aug 26, 2013 00:00 | Leonard Cohen | Bournemouth International Centre | Bournemouth | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Leonard Cohen Tickets |
| Aug 28, 2013 00:00 | Leonard Cohen | The Brighton Centre | Brighton | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Leonard Cohen Tickets |
| Aug 31, 2013 00:00 | Leonard Cohen | Manchester Arena | Manchester | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Leonard Cohen Tickets |
| Sep 03, 2013 00:00 | Leonard Cohen | Motorpoint Arena Cardiff | Cardiff | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Leonard Cohen Tickets |
Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas Videos
More Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas Videos
Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas YouTube Videos
![Leonard Cohen∻"Going Home" [HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQlLWnbco_I/0.jpg)
More Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas YouTube Videos
Leonard Cohen News
Bono calls Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' the 'most perfect song in the world'
The U2 frontman has heaped praise upon the oft-covered track
Leonard Cohen brings 'Old Ideas' to London's Wembley Arena
The iconic songwriter apologises to the crowd for the change of venue from Hop Farm in Kent
Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas: Wikipedia Album Entry
Every song on Leonard Cohen's first album of new material in eight years takes place in the wee small hours. Tempos are at a kingsnake crawl and the sound is full of caresses, variations on the classy but louche cabaret tunes Cohen once dubbed the European blues. The vocals and music unfold in a whisper, and each cut waits tremulously for the dawn, with no guarantee that this time the darkness will not be permanent.
The first words belong to God himself, who wants to have a talk with Leonard, that "lazy bastard living in a suit." Cohen, it seems, has been busy trying to write his love songs and manuals for living with defeat instead of delivering God's message, which is all the 77-year-old has been put here to do, and which is: Time to go home, a trip you make naked and burdenless to a place better than this one.
And th-th-that's all, folks! Three minutes and 50 seconds, titled "Going Home," sum up the story Cohen has been telling since he first left poetry for music in 1967 (after 11 years as Canada's most famous poet, he was 33 and thought the money would be better). When Cohen calls this album Old Ideas, he means not just that these are the thoughts of a septuagenarian, but that he's been turning over these cards for a long while: sex, love, God, and the way the three can be shuffled to relieve the pain of existence. A Jew who disappeared up a mountaintop to ponder Zen Buddhist koans, Cohen has sought rapture anywhere and everywhere he can find it – prayer, LSD, the thighs of a woman – and tried to unite the spiritual and the physical since he first made a sensation with a song about a girl named Suzanne, who touches your perfect body with her mind.
Dylan dreamed he saw St. Augustine. Cohen has walked the earth trying to be St. Augustine. He has never made a pretense of his confessions being anything other than personal – there really was a Suzanne, just like there really was a Marianne. But as time has gone on, Cohen has shorn the ornament from his language to move from the personal to the universal. The lyrics on Old Ideas reach for the stark power of prayers, hymns and religious riddles. The music is just as basic: a keyboard or guitar breaks the stillness, a drummer tries to simulate a Casio rhythm box, backup girls offer comfort to the weak, a stringed instrument gives a final blessing.
The song titles tell the story: "Going Home," "Amen," "Darkness," "Crazy to Love You," "Come Healing." His basso profundo cracked by both the frailty and the wisdom of his years, COhen holds forth on the forces of love and forgiveness, and those of hate and darkness. Which ones will win is a given. What it means is still up for grabs. In an album almost empty of imagery, it stands out when, toward the end, Cohen describes watching "a broken bajo bobbing on the dark, infested sea." It's been carried there by the waves, maybe off of someone's shoulder, maybe out of someone's grave. Some New Orleans horns swell in the distance, neither mournful nor celebratory. Just there. As if to say: life or death. It's up to you. The music goes on.
By Joe Levy
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
Like Leonard Cohen? You might also like...
Artist/Album artwork images hosted by Last.fm. For copyright enquiries please see here.
Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas Lyrics
Leonard Cohen - Going Home Lyrics
I love to speak with Leonard
He's a sportsman and a shepherd
He's a lazy bastard
Living in a suit
Leonard Cohen - Amen Lyrics
Tell me again when I've been to the river
And I've taken the edge off my thirst
Tell me again we're alone and I'm listening
Listening so hard that it hurts
Leonard Cohen - Show Me The Place Lyrics
Show me the place where you want your slave to go
Show me the place, I've forgotten, I don't know
Show me the place for my head is bending low
Show me the place where you want your slave to go
Leonard Cohen - The Darkness Lyrics
I caught the darkness
It was drinking from your cup
I caught the darkness
Drinking from your cup
Leonard Cohen - Anyhow Lyrics
You know it really is a pity, the way you treat me now;
I know you can't forgive me but forgive me, anyhow.
The ending got so ugly, I even heard you say,
"You never ever loved me but could you love me anyway?"
Leonard Cohen - Crazy To Love You Lyrics
I had to go crazy to love you â¨
Had to go down to the pit â¨
Had to do time in the tower â¨
Beggin' my crazy to quit
Leonard Cohen - Come Healing Lyrics
Chorus:
O, gather up the brokenness
Bring it to me now
The fragrance of those promises
Leonard Cohen - Banjo Lyrics
There's something that I'm watching
Means a lot to me
There's something that I'm watching
Means a lot to me
Leonard Cohen - Lullaby Lyrics
Sleep, baby, sleep
The day's on the run
The wind in the trees
Is talking in tongues
Leonard Cohen - Different Sides Lyrics
We find ourselves on different sides
Of a line nobody drew
Though it all may be one in the higher eye
Down here where we live it is two
