Death of a Ladies Man/Recent Songs/the Future [Box-Set]

Death Of A Ladies Man is a great album with beautiful songs! As far as the complaints about Phil Spector's production goes, the sound is not that far removed from certain tracks on Cohen's early album New Skin for the Old Ceremony e.g. Is This What You Wanted which has the same raw delivery with rock instrumentation as opposed to the acoustic simplicity usually associated with Cohen's music. On tracks like Iodine, Memories & Don't Go Home his voice strains a bit against Spector's production (quite appropriately echoing the bitter sentiment of the songs), but True Love Leaves No Traces is soft and sensitive (one of his best songs), while the bouncy singalong Fingerprints works perfectly with its country fiddle.

The lyrics are sheer poetry, as in "True loves leaves no traces/If you and I are one/It's lost in our embraces/Like stars against the sun" and in the acidic Iodine: "It's written on the walls of this hotel/You go to heaven once you've been to hell/A heavy burden lifted from my soul/I heard that love was out of my control." Proof of the quality of these compositions can be found on the excellent tribute album I'm Your Fan where "True Love Leaves No Traces" is given a 70's pop treatment by Dead Famous People while "Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On is covered well enough by David McComb & Adam Peters. I loved Death Of Ladies' Man when it was released in 1978 and I love it even more now. Like everybody else, Cohen is allowed to shout sometimes!

Recent Songs of 1979 might well be one of Cohen's most delicately poetic albums in its exquisite rendering of spiritual themes, employment of exotic instruments like the oriental lute & mariachi trumpets and the breathtaking arrangements. Jennifer Warnes duets with him on The Smokey Life and provides background vocals on The Guests and The Window. Jennifer interprets Came So Far For Beauty with great sensitivity on her album Famous Blue Raincoat; the 20th Anniversary Edition contains Ballad of the Runaway Horse as one of 4 bonus tracks. Why Absent Mare became Runaway Horse is a mystery. None of these songs has been covered on the brilliant I'm Your Fan tribute, perhaps because they're a bit more intricate in arrangement than his well-known classics. Leonard selected only one track, The Guests, for inclusion on the Essential Leonard Cohen compilation.

The sound is fragile, almost ethereal, on tracks like The Window, The Guests and Our Lady of Solitude whilst Humbled In Love is earthier. The most outstanding feature is John Bilezikjian playing "oud" (oriental lute) & Raffi Hakopian playing violin on The Guests, The Window, The Traitor & The Gypsy's Wife plus the Mariachi Band of Luis Briseño on The Lost Canadian (Un Canadien Errant) and Ballad of the Absent Mare with its striking trumpets. Phrases from spiritual literature in the lyrics include "Why hast thou forsaken me?" and "The spear of the age in your side." In the most moving and poetic composition The Window, Cohen refers to the medieval mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing: "Come forth from the cloud of unknowing/And kiss the cheek of the moon/The new Jerusalem glowing/Why tarry all night in the ruin?" Many other esoteric images adorn this intricate and melodic masterpiece where the voice of Warnes adds a special dimension of beauty.

Un Canadien Errant is a folk song from 1842 about an exile yearning for this Quebec homeland after having fled Canada in 1937 following the failed uprising against the government of Louis Mackenzie and Louis Papineau. Raffi Hakopian's solo violin atmospherically embellishes The Traitor whilst its interaction with the Oud on The Gypsy's Wife is most impressive. The solemn and graceful Our Lady of Solitude has a strong spiritual undertone. The duet with Jennifer Warnes: The Smokey Life, is slow with a bluesy tone and the album concludes with Ballad of the Absent Mare, an extended ballad with a mid-tempo lilting beat and subtle, understated backing by the Mariachi Band. This 1979 release is refined, soulful and subtly arranged. It may share a quiet air with Ten New Songs of 2001 but the sound is more varied and the songs more memorable.

The Future takes us back to the 1990s: Tracks range from the soulful cover of Frederick Knight's Be For Real, to the flowing, country-tinged Closing Time and the somber Anthem with its comforting lines: "There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in." Democracy is another tour de force with a lovely undulating rhythm and gripping lyrics whilst Light As The Breeze must rate as one of his most moving love songs. As Cohen's sole album of new material in the 1990's, this was a worthy follow-up to 1988's I'm Your Man and remains a masterpiece of poetry in song.

Proof of the quality of these compositions can be found on the tribute albums I'm Your Fan (1991) and Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1995) where True Love Leaves No Traces, Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On and Light As The Breeze are covered by artists like Dead Famous People and Billy Joel. But Cohen is still the best interpreter of his own songs. I would have selected Various Positions (1985) instead of The Future for this box set in order to keep it chronological, but that's a small matter. It offers great value for money and shows the timeless quality of even his most obscure work.

3 der ersten Leonard Cohen CD's zum absoluten Wahnsinnspreis.
Die ganzen Klassiker wie Susanne, Bird on a Wire, Hallelujah, etc. ... sind da dabei.

Wer Cohen mag, braucht diese Platten!