Shaun de Waal: CD of the week
‘I was born with the gift of a golden voice,” sings Leonard Cohen in a sepulchral rasp on Tower of Song. He clearly isn’t talking about vocal prowess of Pavarotti proportions, but we know what he means (and we cherish his sense of humour). He is one of the finest songwriters of the last four decades, and his new collection, More Best of (Columbia), highlights his great renaissance of the late Eighties and early Nineties.
Cohen has never been prolific: not counting hits packages and live outings, he has made nine albums since his first in 1967. (Bob Dylan, by comparison, put out more than 20 in the same period.) Cohen has been especially reticent of late, living as he does as a Zen monk in a mountain monastery, but the exquisite care he lavishes on each song shows in their impeccable construction (Anthem has a rhyme scheme worthy of Philip Larkin) and the sheer mastery with which Cohen marshalls his words.
The bulk of this collection is from Cohen’s last two albums, I’m Your Man (1988) and The Future (1992) – four songs from each. Then there’s a selection of live tracks (Suzanne among them)and two new songs: Never Any Good, a wry mea culpa with an old-style rock’n’roll backing, and The Great Event, a one-minute apocalyptic poem read by a someone identified only as Victoria.
Hardly a real attempt, then, to account for Cohen’s career since his ubiquitous Greatest Hits of 1975. And if you already possess I’m Your Man and The Future, there is little point in getting this album. If you don’t, however, and are capable of appreciating some of the pinnacles of modern songcraft, it should be acquired immediately.