The Essential Leonard Cohen

Buy it. Now.


Highly recommended   May 3, 2005
 14 out of 18 found this review helpful

This is really quite a special album and is well worth buying due to the depth and breadth of these excellent songs. Its true that not everyone will like it, but these will be the people who just listen to chart music, not people who actually like music.


One of the BEST Albums of All Time.   February 3, 2005
 11 out of 13 found this review helpful

What a Fantastic collection from one of the Greatest Singers ever.Songs from 1967-2001.If you love His music...Buy it.


Mr Rumbling Baritone!   May 25, 2004
 27 out of 31 found this review helpful

Other reviews have described this collection in great detail, so I won't compete with them. I will say that Leonard Cohen won't appeal to everyone, though most people will find something to like in this collection. My wife for one was struggling to decide who she likes least, Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan!

Much mythologised he may be, but he's certainly not half as depressing or pretentious as many people would pontificate. Thoughtful certainly, profound at times, boring at others, but always varied and with hidden depths.

Like Dylan, Cohen succeeds best when he's driving on with purpose and intent, notably on the second CD with songs such as First We Take Manhattan, The Future and Democracy, allowing his uniquely deep and rumbling baritone to communicate urgency and danger. He should do it more often!


Two and a half hours of beauty   December 27, 2002
 48 out of 53 found this review helpful

This magnificent retrospective draws heavily on Cohen's legendary earlier work like Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs from a Room and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (Disc One, Tracks 1 to 11), and then again on his later albums like Various Positions, I'm Your Man, The Future and Ten New Songs.

Of course it deserves five stars - especially since the artist himself made this selection - but I do miss some favorites, like the graceful The Window from Recent Songs (1979), Take This Waltz from I'm Your Man (1988), Heart With No Companion from Various Positions (1985), which in my opinion would have been a better choice than Hallelujah (John Cale has a great cover on the I'm Your Fan tribute album) and Jeff Buckley renders it splendidly on Grace.

I completely agree with his choice of tracks from The Future and Ten New Songs, especially the magnificent Alexandra Leaving. It is perhaps understandable that he ignored Death of a Ladies' Man in its entirety, but this much maligned album has its treasures such as True Loves Leaves No Traces and the lovely, light country number Fingerprints. If Cohen doesn't like the production, why doesn't he re-record some of those great songs?

Another mystery is the skimpy contribution - only Famous Blue Raincoat - from Songs of Love and Hate (1971). That album's masterpieces like Joan Of Arc and Diamonds In The Mine count amongst my favorites in his body of work. Oh well, there's no accounting for taste and it is the artist's prerogative to make his own selection. So enjoy his poetic and melodic genius, infused as it is with a unique spiritual quality, and his weary voice of resignation like a dark painting, more often than not framed with gold by those heavenly female vocals.

And don't forget the various tribute albums, some of which contain real interpretational masterpieces. Besides the aforementioned I'm Your Fan, Jennifer Warnes' Famous Blue Raincoat is brilliant, as is Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy; her elegant renditions of Night Comes On and Sisters Of Mercy with its intricate instrumentation are true masterpieces. The 20th Anniversary edition of the Jennifer Warnes album contains four previously unreleased tracks including a stunning live version of Joan of Arc in addition to the studio duet with Cohen.

Besides John Cale's Hallelujah, the outstanding tracks on I'm Your Fan are Bird on the Wire by The Lilac Time and True Love Leaves No Traces by Dead Famous People. The most memorable songs on the soundtrack album Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man include Winter Lady by Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Tonight will be Fine by Teddy Thompson, Bird on a Wire by Perla Batalla and Sisters of Mercy by Beth Orton. The tribute titled Tower Of Song is not quite as memorable as the others although it does contain a gem or two. I recommend Marianne Faithfull's version of Tower of Song on her superb album Vagabond Ways.

Of course the master returned in 2004 with the incomparable Dear Heather, accompanied by the beautiful voices of Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas on further Cohen classics like Morning Glory, On That Day, Dear Heather, Nightingale and The Faith. Let's hope there's a lot more in the vaults.