You Want It Darker

I came back to slightly edit my review when I read the discussion/comparison of Dylan and Cohen. My view? None. Cohen is a poet of the soul, a soul that turned itself inside out to tell us the truth. Truth is at the heart of every one of Cohen's masterworks - of which I agree, there were many, and many loved, and many sung. In his culminating album, I reprise the reviewer who wrote 'achingly' to add to my own. Cohen is an irreplaceable for all those who feel now inconsolable. That he was ready, consider "Treaty", consider "I'm Ready, My Lord. I stand with those who call You Want it Darker a masterpiece. In a single album we have the traveling light we all come to.May I detain you to recount a little story of the man's generosity. And, charm! And insouciant wry wit? Many years ago I'd read of a Canadian poet, not very known, a man who didn't perform. He was well educated but discovered poetry is the hardest art. I then saw him (you can, too) on You Tube in a panic. Judy Collins had invited him to sing with her. He wouldn't come out. The audience started to sing one of his songs.... I leave the ellipsis as he might have.Years later I learned Cohen was coming to my city. I felt sure the concert would be sold out. "No," said the ticket-taker. "Plenty of seats."There were fewer than 30. He came out in a raincoat, collar turned up, a fedora and leaned over the footlights. I'm paraphrasing: Hello. Come on down here where I can see you. Get right up close. What am I gonna do? (I noted he used more colloquial speech to join the disparate and diverse crowds he later gathered.) I'm gonna tell a few stories...sing a few songs...I'm gonna give you a full two and a/half hours. How many can you name who stands alone, in shadow, a man and his guitar .... those were there that night - no groupies ... knew unmistakably we were in the presence of a mystic who didn't disguise it. Those of us who heard Adam Cohen, who watched interviews over the years, didn't we feel the stab of his pain, of his painful, measured departure. We now know how the album was created. I don't understand those who wrote "not his best". Granted, each assessment is subjective. I write then for myself and any who may find this small eulogy to a man whose last songs were so intimate, human, vulnerable.I had the privilege of meeting the man when he was little known, when few showed up for his concert. He came out to the footlights, peered into the scattered 30 or fewer and said, "Come on up a little closer. Gather in. I'll tell a few stories, sing a few songs...we're gonna' have the whole two and a/half hours...." Unless you know the full story of Cohen's panic attacks (too long to recount here unless someone reading this queries in the box provided), I'll just say his rational fears and grief he talked of openlywere generated by being forced to view his beloved father in an open casket in his own parlor. This is not done in the culltural heritage he did actually follow all his life, calling himself spiritual. He ran to his father's closet to cry among his father's clothes. He later said in an interview, he didn't know why he'd gotten a scissors and cut the tip off one of his father's bow ties. He said he didn't know why. That rending of cloth is symbolic that the dead no longer need clothes. How I wish I'd written him of this. I can hear the song he might have written. I do feel that early loss deepened his sensibility, many times brought him to the brink, turned him to alcohol, drugs. But unlike the many - he fought on. He battled the demons until they quit him. Rather, he quit them. His songs are multi-layered, metaphysical, melodious. Oh those bridges, those shifting melancholy chords. We here on the side of profoundest praise doff our hats to his subtle genius, sardonic charm, his wit, his clear-sighted self-awareness. Praise his social activism, commentary, encompassed in a well-educated man of 'good family' whose deferential manner wrapped his in-person eloquence. His gravelly voice and truth-telling make him a forever star in the pantheon. Was he a force? I say, a multitude of one. A singularity. Listen to the interviews of which there are many. Hear, then read his last poignant message sent to Marianne (also dying), Marianne, his lifelong true-love. If you happen to be Jewish, (or even if you're not), there's a rabbi on You Tube who analyzes the meaning of every word of "You Want it Darker" -- most lines transliterated from the Old Testament. So, our great poet of the people came full circle. Cohen said he was never religious. You rarely find anything of the sort in his songs. All the Cohen songs you ever loved were glorious testimony to being alive - at whatever stage on the road. "Chelsea Hotel", "Bird on a Wire", "Dance me to the End of Love". So many. It's a cumulative mother-lode. Then came Hallelujah, possibly the legacy song for some as so many singers have made it their own.Of "You Want it Darker" - a testimony to love of life and acceptance of Death. "If you're the dealer, I'm out of the game." Here's to the high-hatted fedora tossed in the air. Here's to the man who danced near the end. "I'm ready, My Lord."

Bought from raisedonrecords. It arrived well packaged and earlier than expected. Thanks for the Dance gets most of the praise but I actually prefer You Want it Darker.

Total and absolute perfection I have over a million in audio equipment and this is one of the finest recordings I own and is my demo CD now when someone visits to hear my rooms and to hire me to do an audio room for them brilliant writing performing and to cap it all off perfect quality recording RIP GENIUS

Before Cohen created this final release of his lifetime, I felt that "I'm Your Man" was his best followed closely by "Various Positions". Then I listened to this. In my mind this is a biographical work. He lays it all out. His view of faith, life, love and evil which resides in us all. It is pure raw Cohen. I think it is his most personal and honest album he did. It is beautiful. It is sad. It is questioning. Cohen knew he was coming to the end and this would be his chance to make his statement. When I finished listening to it the first time, I just sat and thought about what I had just heard. I felt a lump in my throat realizing that this was his final message to the world. He manages to pack all of this into a mere 36 minutes. His voice is somber and emotional. I recommend this album to everyone I know. It is Cohen at his best. It is one of my go to albums when I need it. Perfect masterpiece to bring his body of work to an end. Part of me wishes that "Thanks For The Dance" would have been left on the shelf, but a little more Cohen is a good thing. But this, this was his true swansong. Thank you Mr.Cohen.

I preordered this CD some time before it was released. After reading comments by his son Adam, I had a feeling this might be his final recording. What impresses me most about "You Want It Darker" is how honestly and courageously Leonard Cohen was facing "the end." Of course, it is not so much the end as a change for him. And, it's not the end for us either, since he told us, "You'll be hearin' from me, baby, long after I'm gone. I'll be speakin' to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song." In his song "Leaving the Table," Cohen tells us:I don’t need a reasonFor what I becameI’ve got these excusesThey’re tired and they’re lameI don’t need a pardon, no no, no no, noThere’s no one left to blameI’m leaving the tableI’m out of the gameI'm leaving the tableI'm out of the gameIt seems to me that Leonard Cohen's best work has occurred since the turn of the century. My own interest in his music was reinvigorated with the release of "Live in London." Listening to it, I wondered why I hadn't been listening to him for so many years. Then, one after the other, I picked up "Old Ideas" and "Popular Problems," as well as "Can't Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour" and "Live in Dublin." Leonard Cohen accomplished more in his 80s and 90s than most of us get done in a lifetime. Now he's "Traveling Light":I'm traveling lightIt's au revoirMy once so bright, my fallen starI'm running late, they'll close the barI used to play one mean guitarI guess I'm just somebody whoHas given up on the me and youI'm not alone, I've met a fewTraveling light like we used to do . . .

Great cd. Took a while to get here. Happy with purchase.