January 27, 2012

Leonard Cohen - 'Old Ideas'
Leonard Cohen Tickets

Cohen has lost none of his passion

Album Info

Release Date: January 30, 2012
Producer: Patrick Leonard
Label: Columbia
Fact: This is Cohen's twelfth studio album

8 / 10 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 impeccably restrained on this, his first studio album in eight years.

Histrionics are passed over in favour of a compelling slow burn, hitting hard with a near-whispered “I’m naked and I’m filthy” on ‘Anyhow’ and the mournfully mused suggestion that he’s a “lazy bastard living in a suit” on the unassuming but deftly melodic ‘Going Home’. Cohen might sound gruffer than ever on the plaintive, profound ‘Show Me The Place’, a venture deep into Tom Waits piano ballad territory, but his 12th album’s masterpiece hangs in the artful groove and brazen jazz swish of ‘The Darkness’.

Leonie Cooper