| Product: |
I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen |
| Date: |
20.05.02 (166 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Refer to the part with the words
Disadvantages: It ends
On Leonard Cohen's Greatest Hits
All great albums have a certain mood about them, where you can only fully appreciate it at a certain time or under certain conditions. This is my two in the morning album. And you get the feeling that Cohen himself was composing these songs at around the same time, undoubtedly while contemplating the beauty of the hotel room he is so contentedly sharing. Everything he touches has an aura of nonchalant sex appeal, and if you ever need to taste the aura of nonchalant sex appeal it’s at two in the morning.
Being young and being a fan of Leonard Cohen may seem to be a bit if a paradox but I’ve went out of my way to experience the Cohen emotions, mainly those of worshipping love and heartbroken emptiness. Perhaps that’s why you need to be in your thirties or forties to appreciate the man, you need to be on the verge on a mid life crisis. Also, you need to have contempt for falsetto and high notes of any description.
Suzanne is as melodic and poetic as ever, perhaps his most famous song it is one for total release, whatever problems have been encountered during the day will be forgotten once you lie down and let it wash over you. So Long, Marianne is as nice as Cohen gets, the chorus is very singable and simple. It is at this stage you realise Cohen is almost entirely inspired by beauty and love, this is what makes his songs so subliminally romantic and touching.
Perhaps the song most suited to the late hour is Famous Blue Raincoat. His use of female backing singers is outstanding throughout the album, and in this song they transcend their capacity, they combine with Cohens vocals and produce a beautiful and melancholic sound that cannot fail to move and influence those who are lucky enough to hear it.
Chelsea Hotel no.2 is a firm favourite of mine, an ode to a former flame who creeps into his thoughts now and again. A wonderful song on a musical and lyrical
level, this is in my opinion his best composition judging from a purely guitar basis. His nylon picking patterns are always interesting but this is his most enthralling. I particularly enjoy the last quatrain;
“I don’t mean to suggest that I loved you the best
I can’t keep track of each fallen robin
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
That’s all I don’t even think of you that often”
The last song Take This Longing is the most downbeat and melancholic on the album. As the title blatantly suggests Cohen longs for his love, he is amazed by the men who are lucky enough to experience her, but who do not fully comprehend just how beautiful she is. Lyrically the song is very moving;
“You’re faithful to the better man
I m afraid that he left
So let me judge your love affair
In this very room
Where I have sentenced mine to death”
I have spoken of only a few of the songs, but overall the album is a must for those who any interest in the singer/songwriter genre
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