October 29, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Yotam Barkai - Yale Daily News Review
January 7, 2005 - Review of Dear Heather by Jeff Miers - The Buffalo News
December 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Kevin McGowin - Eclectica
December 26, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather - Boston Herald
November 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Eric Greenwood - Free Times
November 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Jeffrey Morgan - Creem Magazine
November 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Connell Burton McDaniel - Synthesis
November 21, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Steve Stockman -
The Phantom Tollbooth
November 6, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Christopher Rees - icWales
November 5, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by David Styburski - Western Courier (Western Illinois University)
LISTEN -- November 2, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather on Day to Day
by Christian Bordal - NPR
November 23, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Elly Roberts - All Gigs.co.uk
October 2004 - Canadian Maestro Is One of the Few Rock Writers Who Can Genuinely
Claim to Be a "Poet" by James Hunter - Blender
October 18, 2004 - New Leonard Cohen Ponders the Smaller Moments
by Rob O'Connor - Grapevine Culture
October 2004 - Review of Dear Heather - Tower Records
November 7, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Matt H. -
Soundsxp - Alternative Music Webzine
December 2, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Alexander Varty - The Georgia Straight
November 28, 2004 - Leonard Cohen's Farewell... by Jon Pareles - New York Times
December 2004 - Slow and Loaded like a Last Waltz
by Pirkko Kotirinta - Helsingin Sanomat (Finland)
24 Oct 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Luke Turner - Playlouder
November 25th, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Melora Koepke - The Hour (Ottawa)
November 2004 - Review of Dear Heather - Stylus Magazine
November 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by J. Poet - Soundprint
October 30, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by John Mulvey
- Times Online UK
November 04, 2004 - Burning for Eternity -
The Legendary Leonard Cohen Proves He's Not Yet Gone
by Alex Linhardt - The Cornell Daily Sun
October 29, 2004 - Man of Letters Still Embraces the Write Stuff
by Fiona Shepherd - Scotsman.com
November 4, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Angie Baecker - The Daily Californian
October 25, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by David Cheal - Telegraph UK
November 8, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Robert Christgau - Village Voice
November 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by John Potter - Kansai Time Out
November 7, 2004 - Cohen Wallows in Wisdom Gained from Misfortune
by Randy Lewis, The Los Angeles Times - Indianapolis Star
November 5, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Tom Laskin - Isthmus
November 5, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Adam Dunlop-Farkas - The Yale Hearld
November 4, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Brian Howe - Pitchfork Review
29 October 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Michael Dwyer - The Age (Australia)
October 29, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather - Winnipeg Sun
October 27, 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Pamela Murray Winters -
The Washington Post
October 25, 2004 - Leonard Cohen Doesn’t Try to Play It Cool by Ryan Lenz -
MSNBC Associated Press - Sound Bites
October 2004 - Review of Dear Heather by Thom Jurek - All Music Guide
October 2004 - Leonard Cohen Makes a 5-Star Return - The Metro (London)
October 24, 2004 - Leonard Cohen - Dear Heather by Simon Price -
Sunday London Independent
October 25, 2004 - Leonard Cohen - Dear Heather by Adrien Begrand - PopMatters.com
|
Yale Daily News Review
October 29, 2004
Older, wiser and lovlier than ever Leonard Cohen
"We'll go no more a-roving/ So late into the night," Leonard Cohen sings on the opening track of his eccentric, challenging new album Dear Heather. But the underrated Cohen, who turned 70 in September, has continued to release album after album despite a failure to achieve widespread popularity or commercial success. His astonishing lyrical skill and the distinct ideas and themes of his work have remained largely constant within a musical landscape that has grown and changed with the times.
In its sound and content, Dear Heather marks the culmination of Cohen's music career. Though the album is inconsistent, with several rough spots of experimentation, its high points are as great as anything Cohen has ever released.
As its affable title indicates, Dear Heather is a quiet, musing work. The cynicism of The Future (1992) and the bleak incisiveness of Songs of Love and Hate (1971) are replaced by introspective contemplation befitting an artist who has just reached his 70th birthday. In that respect, the album has an additional perspective of several decades as well as the weight of serving as a reflection on his own work.
Cohen rose to prominence as a singer-songwriter in the 1960s, after having already published two novels and one anthology of poetry in Canada. In 1967, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folksinger. His first album, The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), was popular among college students but his music never caught on with the mainstream. His work has been characterized by melancholy and lyrics that resemble poetry. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk; the album's quiet reflection seems inspired by his religion.
Lyrically, Dear Heather is as strong as any album of his long career. Cohen pays tribute to his background as a poet by dedicating several songs to the people that influenced him, such as the Canadian poets Irving Layton and A.M. Klein, and F. R. Scott, once one of Cohen's professors. The album even begins with a tribute to Lord Byron; Cohen adapts the poem "Go No More A-Roving" into a jazzy, relaxed song.
"There For You" and "The Letters" are Cohen at his best, with effective musical instrumentation balancing lyrics that are nostalgic, pained and newly aware of mortality: "Death is old,/ But it's always new./ I freeze with fear/ And I'm there for you," he sings on "There For You." On these tracks, the melancholy quality of Cohen's famously unmusical vocals -- deep, coarse and monotone -- are well complemented by longtime collaborator Sharon Robinson's vocals to create a sublime beauty. Cohen's chant, quieted to a barely audible whisper at times, is all the more haunting on songs such as "On That Day," a response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Cohen has tried, mostly successfully, to incorporate a number of musical styles and elements into his work. Recently, his albums have been characterized by a fusion of country and folk, with the continued use of the synthesizer sounds that were so effective in increasing the scope and magnitude of albums like The Future.
Dear Heather, though, overuses synthesizers and solo saxophones, and sometimes ventures into the gray area between quiet, unhurried music and cheap elevator muzak. In particular, on the tracks "Villanelle For Our Time" and "To a Teacher," the music seems almost an afterthought to the admittedly fascinating lyrics. In "Villanelle" the sparse noodling on the synthesizer and horn sounds like half-formed ideas rather than realized music. Nevertheless, Cohen's deep, chanting voice commands attention and seriousness, smoothing these rough experimental passages into one continuous whole.
The title track, however, is a bizarre, unsuccessful experiment that is perhaps the weakest song on the album. A repetitive and almost childish melody plays under Cohen and singer Anjani Thomas's repetitive five-line chant. Cohen tries to achieve a certain effect with the repetition, but the result is difficult to listen to and out of context.
One wishes Cohen would stick to the kind of fascinating, unsettling beauty he proves himself so capable of on two of the last tracks, "Nightingale" and "The Faith" -- the album's masterpiece. Cohen's and Thomas's voices combine to give the song a haunting beauty, and its creative instrumentation and arrangement, which includes an enchanting violin solo, are gorgeous. The lyrics are nearly heartbreaking, filled with regret and pain. "So many graves to fill/ O love, aren't you tired yet?" he sings.
Cohen's words seem to look back upon his magnificent career; should this end up his final album, it will be a worthy coda. But the interesting and provocative Dear Heather indicates there is untapped potential that can yet be realized in years to come.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=27040
Contributed by Tchocolatl and Tom S.
Return to Top
|
The Buffalo News
January 7, 2005
* * * (4 Stars - Highest Rating)
At 70, Leonard Cohen seems to have finally made peace with himself. That's a wonderful thing for Cohen, now a devout Buddhist. But is it good for Cohen the recordmaker and songwriter?
The answer suggested by Dear Heather is yes. And no.
On the plus side, Cohen manages to approach what for him will have to pass for happiness with the same unflinching gaze - one part stoicism, the rest a blend of wit, reverence and spite - he's brought to his best work, from Death of a Ladies Man to later winners like I'm You Man and The Future. The familiar croak is still here, more spoken-word suggestive of melody and rhythm than actual singing, and we welcome it. The lyrics remain brilliant and virtually without parallel. The cool, late-night vibe is intact, the ghosts of ladies hanging about like viscous specters from a Norman Mailer novel one minute, pale Ophelias the next.
The trouble is Cohen's seeming relaxation. He's placed the overarching ethic of his music in the hands of producer Sharon Robinson, which is not necessarily a bad thing, since she handled his last record, 10 New Songs, quite wonderfully. But this time around, there are moments when it seems a little too obvious that Robinson composed and recorded the music, Cohen showing up to add his bits over the top at a later date. As a result, there is a disembodied feel that plagues parts of the record though it never manages to wholly derail it.
There are moments of sublime, poetic beauty here, and they make up for a few spots that sound phoned-in: "The Letters" is the prime example.
There is a sense of inner peace throughout Dear Heather - and that's the first time anyone has been able to say as much about a Leonard Cohen record. Is it because of this that the record falls just a notch short of his best previous work? Maybe. But even a slightly substandard Cohen album is a wonder to behold.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050107/1057611.asp
Contributed by Marie.
Return to Top
|
Eclectica
December 2004
* * * *
Leonard Cohen is probably one of those very few artists actually incapable of recording a bad album, because his presence and his voice are somehow enough. Yet while he really can't ever equal the aging ladies' man persona of I'm Your Man (1988) or the apocalyptic fury of 1992's The Future, Dear Heather is a remarkable work in itself, one that grows on listeners until they hit auto-repeat, and one that is actually a CD of experimental poetry: Cohen, always pushing the envelope, is breaking new ground and exploring new territory at 70. Will it win new fans? Every time anyone hears anything by Leonard Cohen for the first time, he seems to make one, and as he suggested on "I'm Your Man," he really has become all things to all people—his work here as elsewhere operates on multiple levels at once, just as Cohen's persona does for three generations of listeners.
Where 2002's Ten New Songs was somehow one of the sexiest albums ever made at the same time as Cohen turned off his aging ladies' man persona to highlight his vulnerable, brooding and introspective essence, Dear Heather is almost just as sexy because he brings it back again. And as always, it's very tongue-in-cheek and quite poignant at once: "Because of a few songs / Wherein I spoke of their mystery / Women have been kind to me / In my old age," he rasps on "Because Of." The social conscience is there in "Villanelle for Our Time," as is the Zen spirituality on "To a Teacher" and "The Faith."
The title track, like most of the other songs, presents Cohen's perennial preoccupation with memory, time, and loss—yet as he repeats a single quatrain about the image of a beautiful woman with a drink in her hand in his muskiest voice as the keyboards shimmer beneath it easing from key to key, it dawns on one that this sexy loss mantra is actually an ironic comment on the Cohen persona itself.
The album's finest track, however, is its first, "Go No More A-Roving," in which Cohen sets Lord Byron's poem to music—and it is perhaps the finest adaptation of an English Romantic poet ever recorded. Cohen has never been more smooth, and placing the song first on the album underscores Cohen's unique interpretation of Byron: the poem isn't about a relationship breaking up. It's an invitation to take one to a new level of passion.
http://www.eclectica.org/v9n1/mcgowin_noted_two.html
Contributed by Colleen1986 and Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Boston Herald
December 26, 2004
Septuagenarian poet-singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen opens his 13th album with a sepulchral version of "Go No More A-Roving," the classic Irish farewell-to-carousing (and perhaps to life) adapted from a poem by Byron.
In the next 13 tracks, Cohen proves he means what he says, turning in one morbid, meandering number after another on his way to making the least melodic and most self-indulgent album of his long career.
On Dear Heather, it's almost as if Cohen has decided to forego music entirely, pruning instrumental settings to the bare minimum and beyond (although co-writer and singer Sharon Robinson retains a large share of the spotlight) and forcing his poetry to carry the weight. But if Cohen had wanted to make a spoken-word album he should have just done so. As music, Dear Heather is dull and tedious in a way that no amount of poetic brilliance can ameliorate.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/discReviews/view.bg?articleid=519
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Free Times
November 2004
* * * * (5 Stars - Highest Rating)
Leonard Cohen recently turned 70, and Dear Heather plays like a love letter to his life. It's surprisingly optimistic, even with its eulogistic tone. Cohen's best songs are about women, and Dear Heather is chock full of them, though they seem to be saying "goodbye." The music may sound like schmaltzy jazz, but Cohen's elegiac, almost spoken voice balances it with enough gravitas to justify repeated listens. His penetrating baritone has turned into an innocuous whisper over the years. Dear Heather is a quiet and engrossing album that proves age doesn't necessarily dictate artistic degradation.
http://www.free-times.com/archive/coverstorarch/listen_up.html
Contributed by Marie.
Return to Top
|
Creem Magazine
November 2004
It's a wonder anyone still wants him, but give thanks that some do.
It's a wonder anyone still has ears able to discern his quiet wisdom from the daily roar; to stop and reflect on what he has to say.
Here in Toronto, just as in the small pockets of resistance which exist elsewhere, there will always be those who will take heed of what Leonard Cohen has to say. And while their numbers may dwindle through attrition, collectively their unified spirit picks up the slack, filling in the space where others are absent.
The years pass, and his phrasing slows down to a deep resonant tone. His words shorten, but their meaning grows with a profound universal truth born out of experience, however imperfect and reluctant:
Some people say
It's what we deserve
For sins against g–d
For crimes in the world
I wouldn't know
I'm just holding the fort
Since that day
They wounded New York
Some people say
They hate us of old
Our women unveiled
Our slaves and our gold
I wouldn't know
I'm just holding the fort
But answer me this
I won't take you to court
Did you go crazy
Or did you report
On that day
On that day
They wounded New York
That small line between the 'g' and the 'd' is the difference between art and artifice.
Leonard Cohen understands.
Give thanks that he still has the patience to explain it to us, again.
Give thanks.
http://www.creemmagazine.com/RockARama/RockARama18.html#LeonardCohen
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Synthesis
November 2004
Since 1967, Leonard Cohen has been releasing albums filled with beautifully poetic lyrics of substance and relevance. He began the ‘60s as an acclaimed poet and novelist, but by decade’s end he had created his first two albums. The ‘70s and ‘80s saw him slowly growing from his folksy musical beginnings with the incorporation of a jazzier, smoky lounge sound. Cohen started the ‘90s with the excellent The Future, but spent the rest of the decade coping with depression by living in a monastery, so fans had to make do with tribute albums and a best-of collection. It is, then, a pleasant surprise for Cohen to have already released two albums of new material by the fourth year of the new millennium.
The second of these albums is his new disc Dear Heather. It is far more reflective of his live performances than its predecessor, 2001’s Ten New Songs. So much so, in fact, that the last song on Dear Heather is a live recording of the steel guitar moaning "Tennessee Waltz." On the majority of Dear Heather, soft instrumentation provides a backdrop as Cohen’s age-ravaged voice contrasts with smooth female backing vocals. A muted trumpet waltzes with an oscillating organ on the title track, over which Cohen sings the concise lyrics "Dear Heather / please walk by me again / with a drink in your hand / and your legs all white / from winter." So short and simple, yet so longingly beautiful.
http://www.synthesis.net/music/feature.php?fid=4259
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
The Phantom Tollbooth
November 21, 2004
Leonard Cohen has always been the cerebral rock star. After all, he was a novelist and poet first only turning to song to sell more product. Yet the mind is not Cohen’s ultimate concern. He is all about the sensuality of heart and ardor of soul. This is the Canadian’s eleventh album and is a whole lot less wordy than normal. When you consider that he had written fifty verses for some of the songs on 1992’s The Future and that there are only five lines to the title track on this one, it suggests that our Jewish friend's time in the hills of California doing Zen Buddhist meditation has led to economy of word.
Another way that the spiritual pilgrimage of his sixtieth decade has influenced this work is the repetitive nature of some of the songs. The central piece here is "Villanelle For Our Time" which repeats the reflections of Frank Scott for almost six minutes. With any other artist, the overuse of the key lines, "from bitter searching of the heart/ We rise to play a greater part" would have grown wearisome but this is where Cohen’s voice becomes to quote the Gospel writers, "as one having authority and not as the scribes." (Note for the spiritual squeamish; this is poetic licence with no theological intent!). By its end your soul is ready to refurbish your life; you want to give your soul a darn good thrashing, make it clean, and start all over to make your mark across the world.
Spiritual concerns are evident throughout and the album is topped and tailed by questions of love’s stamina to hold out in a world that must weary it beyond measure. In Lord Byron’s "Go No More A Roving" there is suggestion it needs a breather and the penultimate track, "The Faith," nicked from a Quebec folk song, asks, "Oh love, aren’t you tired yet?" Of course a recent event that must have left love short of breath was 9/11 and Cohen gives it a short reflection leaving a few hints at answers ("Some people say/It’s what we deserve/For sins against g-d/For crimes in the world") as he asks why. But in the end he is happy to get on with it in the confusion, refusing conclusions ("I wouldn’t know/I’m just holding the fort/Since the day/they wounded New York").
One does always come back to Cohen’s voice and early reviews have questioned its strength of power. Maybe he is speaking more and singing less but this voice is a powerful instrument and this seventy-year-old sings when asking for a cup of coffee. It has profound spiritual impact. Goodness what a preacher he would have made! It is also an astonishingly sensual sound and the sexiest pensioner in the world admits on "Because Of" that, "Because of a few songs/Wherein I spoke of their mystery/Women have been/Exceptionally kind to my old age." I bet they have Leonard!
It is, however, in the romantic department where the album makes its one failure. The title track is another exercise in repetition. This time it is only five lines about Heather’s "legs all white from the winter". He even descends into spelling out white and winter. It is tedious and in truth, pathetic. Maybe an attempt at a little whimsy and humour. Failed!
As on 2001’s Ten New Songs, Cohen’s lack of vocal range is supplemented by the singing of Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas. When they throw another hue across songs like "Villanelle For Our Time" there are no doubts. When they take stretches on their own you are not so sure but when they light up the epiphany of "Morning Glory," you stop quibbling.
Like Cohen himself, his music is tailored and tasteful, handsome on the outside and tender of soul within. Earthly pleasure and heavenly desire rarely compliment each other so well.
http://www.tollbooth.org/2004/reviews/lcohen.html
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
icWales
November 6, 2004
Now 70 years old, Leonard Cohen is universally recognised as the godfather of gloom.
But over the course of his 35-year career he has sold 11 million albums and inspired generations of singer/ songwriters from John Cale to Jeff Buckley and Damien Rice, who all covered his 1984 classic Hallelujah.
Cohen's voice has lowered even more since then to the deep base tone we know and love but it is often an oppressive weight to bear and sometimes it is not until listeners hear his songs transformed by others that they begin to appreciate the poetic and melodic beauty that lurks within his songs.
Dear Heather comes relatively swiftly by Cohen’s standards and follows 2001's Ten New Songs.
It's as profound and dark as you might expect yet well balanced, given air and light by the sweet voice of his conspirator and co-producer Sharon Robinson.
His 9/11 song On That Day is contemplative and puzzled while the spoken word jazz of Villanelle For Our Time is beautifully complemented by the soulful voice of Anjani Thomas.
It is not an easy-listening album despite some '80s production values but it does contain some of his best songwriting in years - even if it does take somebody else's interpretations to reveal it to the masses.
Link to article
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Western Courier (Western Illinois University)
November 5, 2004
Grade B
Music lovers who have had their fill of Tom Waits's "Real Gone" and still crave moody sounds from a highly esteemed non-singer might want to get their hands on Dear Heather, the new album by longtime cult favorite Leonard Cohen.
Cohen's latest disc is an uneven collection of tracks that succeed only as much as the artist and his backup singers allow them to by means of their vocals.
This critique isn't meant to imply that Cohen is a bad singer, although people could characterize him that way if they judge singing by how well one hits musical notes and not by how well a person conveys feelings through intonations. After decades of great music from such unconventional singers as Waits, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, Cohen's traditional vocal limitations shouldn't sound so shocking.
But Dear Heather proves that voices like Cohen's can't carry every tune, even on a purely emotional level. Even when singing about love, Cohen sounds spooky. Thus, teaming him with Supremes-esque backup vocalists on compositions such as "Because Of" and "Go No More A-Roving" seems downright silly.
"Villanelle for Our Time" and the title cut find Cohen excessively in touch with his bohemian poet roots and not even trying to sing. The lack of effort results in no emotional context for those songs.
These vocal weaknesses don't exist on the male/female dialogue that makes up "The Letters" and "Undertow," near-perfect Cohen tracks that cause listeners to envision a dark room and hear the crackling fire.
Cohen's sincere performance on "There for You"" turns the lyrics into effective weapons of defense against attacks on his romantic loyalty. "On That Day," a response to Sept. 11, drifts by so calmly that one almost misses its succinct beauty.
An album that features plenty of missteps along with graceful movements, Dear Heather demands patience in exchange for its pleasures.
http://www.westerncourier.com/news/2004/11/05/TheEdge/Leonard.Cohen.dear.Heather-795155.shtml
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
All Gigs.co.uk
November 23, 2004
Take a trip on the good ship Leonard Cohen. Cohen is not a man to be rushed at any cost. The poet, author, intellectual and songwriter has released one of best albums ever. As per usual, albums don’t come off the factory production line. He treats his work as an art form. It was only when I received a review copy of the Essential Leonard Cohen last year that I was converted. Though not everyone’s cup of tea, partly due to his self – indulgent morbidity, this is a massive step forward in terms of accessibility. Dripping in sensuality from the very beginning, Go No More A – Roving,( words by Lord Byron and perhaps a personal statement) and intellectualisation in love and philosophy, it’s almost as if Cohen’s turned a corner – but not too big a corner. In effect, it’s poetry in motion,: quaint, uncluttered with many spoken words, plus the added beauty of songbirds Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas who have a considerable input. Also look out for some smokey, stunning and understated sax play by Bob Sheppard – Undertow and the opening track, which at times, gives it a new Jazz feel. A reference to 9/11 On That Day; Cohen keeps an open mind, and resorts to becoming none judgemental, but elsewhere he never falls short of his directness eg There For You and The Letters. His cover of a Quebec folk song – The Faith - is an absolute tearjerker. Stewart and King’s Tennessee Waltz is a stirring climax. It moves along like a steady ship, never causing too much of a splash – but drowning you in the warmth of the water. One for culture vultures and lovers in the world. Delightful.
Best tracks, 1, 3, 10.
Over his career Cohen has sold more than 11 million albums world-wide, which include -Songs from A Room, Songs Of Love And Hate, New Skin For The Old Ceremony, Death Of A Ladies’ Man, Recent Songs, Various Positions, I’m Your Man, The Future, Ten New Songs.
http://www.allgigs.co.uk/Reviews.php?review=EllyRoberts%2Fleonardcohen-dearheather
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Blender
October 2004
* * * *
Soon after Bob Dylan showed in the ’60s how lyrics could go wherever a songwriter liked, Leonard Cohen mastered a melancholy sensuality juiced by the techniques of poetry. Dear Heather is top Cohen: It begins by addressing women ("Because Of") in a ripe, humane baritone, then gets dramatically literary ("The Letters"), looks at 9/11 ("On that Day"), and dovetails back toward sex with the subtle yet explosive title piece. Its lyrics read: "Dear Heather/Please walk by me again/ With a drink in your hand/And y"gs all white/From the winter." With a live version of the Grand Ole Opry standard "Tennessee Waltz," Cohen ends on a strange Nashville cloud. These are all country songs, you could say — for wine bars.
http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=2926
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Grapevine Culture
October 18, 2004
* * * *
There aren’t many 70-year-old singer/songwriters out there. But if Leonard Cohen’s eleventh studio album Dear Heather is any indication, maybe there should be a few more. For some 40 years now, this Canadian writer with a keen eye, a healthy sense of humor and a sense of personal rhythm has ignored all the safety advisories and health warnings and taken his creative ride at full speed, leaving a thousand bands of the moment in the dust.
Here, Cohen brings in producers Leanne Unger and Sharon Robinson, singer Anjani Thomas and other special guests to collaborate on this modest collection.
Where Cohen once wrote songs with a grand, sweeping vision ("Suzanne," "Bird On A Wire," "Democracy"), he’s now content to write the abridged versions, smaller moments in quieter lives.
His voice keeps growing deeper, each new crease adding a foreboding sense of eternity. When it’s stacked against the ever flowing beauty of his back-up singers, lush keyboard arrangements and touches of tenor sax and trumpet, Cohen sounds like a prophet traveling by luxury car from appointment to appointment.
The songs come across like prayers. "The Letters" is aged wisdom set to a concise melody. "On That Day" addresses 9-11 without judgment. The old country chestnut "Tennessee Waltz" is given an additional verse.
Playful yet brooding, silly yet sincere, Dear Heather is many things often at the same time, but always a testament to Leonard Cohen’s never wavering belief in his own vision of the world – one that threatens apocalypse, but can also be made right with a woman’s touch.
http://www.grapevineculture.com/review.php?r=408&s=1
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Tower Records
October 2004
While there are some familiar elements present, much of DEAR HEATHER is a stark contrast to virtually all of Leonard Cohen's previous recorded work. Where the Canadian troubadour's previous albums all sounded like carefully constructed towers of song, built piece by painstaking piece (and Cohen has confirmed this as his working process), DEAR HEATHER seems to be an entirely more spontaneous offering. One might speculate that longtime Buddhist Cohen has taken the precepts of Zen to heart in presenting a batch of compositions unmarred by the effects of obvious labor.
Lyrically and melodically, these songs are more sparse and pared-down than anything else in Cohen's catalog. Some are whittled down to only a simple recitation repeated numerous times over a skeletal chord progression. By simplifying his approach to such an extreme degree, it seems as though Cohen is trying to get as close as possible to the heart of his work, without the literary trappings of his past accomplishments. Nevertheless, one link with his previous work is the bonus live cut tacked on to the end of the disc. In the tradition of past quirky Cohen covers like Irving Berlin's "Always" and Richard Blakeslee's "Passing Thru," the gravel-voiced singer tackles the country classic "Tennessee Waltz" with trademark aplomb that also reminds the listener of Cohen's ever-present sense of humor.
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=3106484
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Soundsxp - Alternative Music Webzine
November 7, 2004
Good old Len. At a time when too many of our aging heroes are shuffling off this mortal coil, he's actually upping his workrate. Dear Heather, like the ten new songs of its predecessor, is a collection of slow paced jazz-rock lifted into the stratosphere by the great man's sombre and grizzled tones. With his bittersweet and sardonically romantic, outlook intact he puts all manner of upstarts to shame. While there are some odder morsels, like the Barry Adamsonesque Morning Glory, mostly he's firmly reclaiming his territory from battered ironic crooners like Lambchop and [smog].
There's always going to be a place for someone who can view the events of 9/11 with real perspective as he does in On That Day. But beyond that, even when mocking his own status as an elder statesman, all his songs are imbued with an unimpeachable authority. Here's hoping that he keeps going for a few more years yet to keep the (relative) youngsters on their toes.
http://www.soundsxp.com/1310.shtml
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
The Georgia Straight
December 2, 2004
The first time I heard Leonard Cohen's latest I was in the car, and I just about drove off the road laughing. But it wasn't the good kind of laughter, alas. It might have been the "jew's harp" on "Nightingale" that did it, or the oobie-doo background vocals on "Because Of", or the anguished-android delivery Cohen employs on the title track. I know that by the time he got around to his mawkish 9/11 anthem "On That Day"--and once that damned jew's harp returned--I was convinced this once-masterful songwriter has lost it in a big way.
There's little on Dear Heather to suggest otherwise--except, perhaps, "To a Teacher", in which Cohen recounts a long-ago visit to mentor-poet A. M. Klein, then resident in a Montreal psychiatric hospital. Here, at least, there's some real writing: "A long pain ending without a song to prove it" and "Did you confuse the messiah in a mirror/And rest because he had finally come?" Elsewhere Cohen sounds more like a lugubrious Neil Sedaka than the urbane ironist he once was--which is worth a laugh, but not a listen.
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=6784
Contributed by Judith F.
Return to Top
|
New York Times
November 28, 2004
On "Dear Heather" (Columbia), Leonard Cohen, 70, goes beyond autumnal to wintry: death-haunted and barren. It's an album of farewells to friends, lovers and, it seems, to desire itself. Some songs are virtually unadorned with poetic imagery and fall flat; in others, Mr. Cohen uses his calmly sepulchral voice for speech rather than melody. The production is homemade, mostly keyboards and drum machines, and the arrangements are filled out by seraphic women's voices, Mr. Cohen's only comfort. Most songs, including "On That Day," end up somnolent, but a handful - "The Letters," "There for You," "Nightingale" and especially "The Faith" - linger as bleak yet hopeful hymns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/arts/music/28play.html?ex=1102309200&en=a1091956b5f4439f&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1
Contributed by Dick.
Return to Top
|
Helsingin Sanomat (Finland)
December 2004
Leonard Cohen still has a way with words and atmospheres
The unsurpassed soundtrack voice for late nights with red wine is now lower than on any previous record.
The vocal delivery of Leonard Cohen, 70, is closer to reciting than singing - but does it matter? It sure doesn't.
Some of the songs on Dear Heather rank alongside his best material – no mean feat, as Cohen's career began almost 40 years ago. One of those songs is, without a shadow of doubt, Because Of - the aged ladies' man self-deprecatory account of women who "become naked in their different ways" for him to see – "because of a few songs wherein I spoke of their mystery". "Look at me Leonard, look at me one last time", Anjani Thomas sings sweetly in the background. And no doubt Leonard looks at her – but is it for the last time?
In his lifetime, Leonard has sung about women, undressed them in his songs and touched their lovely bodies, at least with his mind, like he did in Suzanne.
There have been at least two Suzannes in Cohen's life. Then, of course, there was the Norwegian Marianne (So Long, Marianne), Janis Joplin (Chelsea Hotel #2), Nancy (Seems So Long Ago, Nancy) and Rebecca.
Nico (of Velvet Underground fame) was not in the least turned on by Cohen, but she too inspired a song: Take This Longing.
The next one up is the mysterious Heather. The woman who walks with her "legs all white from the winter" has driven the poet quite crazy. In the end, the old man is only capable of spelling his words, one letter at a time. – A dry, self-deprecatory humour shines through here as well.
In addition to his own material, Cohen sings lyrics by Lord Byron (Go No More A-Roving) and Frank Scott (Villanelle For Our Time) and dedicates songs to significant mentors such as his teacher, writer A.M. Klein (To A Teacher).
In terms of musical impact, the childishly trilling title track falls short of the mournfully beautiful The Letters (featuring Sharon Robinson as both a co-composer and a duet partner), the impressive recital of Morning Glory with its bass and vibraphone backing, and There For You, which can be viewed either as a declaration of love or a kind of cosmology.
On That Day depicts "that day they wounded New York", leaving the listener with nothing but a weighty question, backed by a jew's harp.
The poems of Cohen, a Jew by birth, have always been rich in multi-layered mysticism, melancholy and depression. Even after his zen period, they are still there.
In fact, Cohen has changed so little during his career that it´s a bit baffling – even though his approaches to production have varied from his customarily sparse sound to his most pompous Phil Spector period of the 80's. On this album, the production chores are handled by the female trio of Robinson, Anjani and Leanne Ungar.
There are some traditional elements such as the angelic background vocals as well as certain musical trademarks: the bouzouki and the jew's harp.
And then, of course, there are the waltzes. For a beat poet, Cohen is exceptionally keen on waltzing, and the triplet swing is present on this album as well. Slow, charged – and devout.
Contributed by Jarkko. Translated by Karri.
Return to Top
|
Playlouder
24 Oct 2004
* * * * 1/2
"Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey/I ache in the places where I used to play," sang Leonard Cohen in ‘Tower of Song’. If these felt like the words of a man dealing with the awareness of late middle age back in the 1980s, then the songs of 'Dear Heather' are those of a man who knows that he is well into his twilight years. Leonard Cohen is 70 now. I think of that and his 80,000 cigarettes that carved this rich, velvety voice that's half croon, half narration...
Now I have found ‘Dear Heather’, and listened to it over and over. And for the first time in my awareness of Leonard Cohen, his words made me feel the heartache that he usually cures. I have worried for Cohen’s mortality for some time, and now it seems that he is expressing this awareness of an end, too.
"So we’ll go no more a-roving" go the backing singers at the album's opening. Then Cohen, cutting in "So we’ll go no more a-roving / so late into the night / though the heart be still as loving / And the moon be still as bright / for the sword outwears the sheath / the soul outwears the breast / the heart must pause for breath / and love itself have rest".
I had tears in my eyes the first time I listened to ‘Dear Heather’. There's humour here - "because of a few songs /wherein I spoke of their mystery / women have been exceptionally kind" he sings with a wry glint in his eye on 'Because Of'. But this aside, there is an unrelenting feeling of a fading face at a train window, a last glance before a long voyage that may be without end. It is so hard to hear that Leonard Cohen may be saying farewell, because for over a decade he has meant more to me than any other artist I could name. I remember, when my dad used to play Leonard Cohen in his study, bellowing along; I’d be there complaining about this ‘suicide music’, joking about getting the razorblades out.
And then I suppose I reached a certain age of adolescence when I went to find a teacher in addition to my father. And my father, in a way, had provided that teacher for me. I dug through his Leonard Cohen records, in the cabinet that had a certain musty scent that to this day is the scent of music, and I was transfixed. Leonard Cohen taught me more about a certain idea of love and women and yearning and beauty than any other person has ever managed, be they someone known to me, or a stranger.
From the shared experience of Cohen that I have had with so many of my friends over the years, I've come to realise that he is the one artist who reaches through three generations with his soul, rather than musical heritage. Cohen is never remembered in the same way that perhaps the Beatles are, certainly Dylan. They are passed down like musty heirlooms, becoming increasingly tattered with each inheritance. Cohen's music, not being music, is timeless. His poetry can never die.
Of course Cohen can’t sing, but what matter that when the words are so rich? After all, he is a reluctant musician, initially writing the likes of 'Susanne' for female folk singers. In ‘Villanelle for our Time’, based on a poem by Canadian poet Frank Scott, his voice pours from the speakers, caressing the ears like warmed treacle that stops them from hearing anything else save these words.
The musical backing the songs of 'Dear Heather' is simple, bringing together of all the ties Cohen has employed over the past thirty or so years, excepting the vastly under-rated use of synthesisers on ‘I’m Your Man’ and ‘The Future’. There’s the kangaroo-twangs of the Jews harp, Spanish guitar, the mournful viola that was all over ‘Recent Songs’. It’s beautifully arranged; most sweepingly in one with the last track (I’m not counting the pointlessly tacked on live cover of ‘Tennessee Waltz’) ‘The Faith’.
I cannot go far enough to persuade you how much you must hear this album, for Leonard Cohen’s poetry speaks for itself. I just hope that 'Dear Heather', this note-to-self, to women, to love, to the world, to all of us, is not Leonard Cohen's self-penned epitaph.
http://www.playlouder.com/review/+dearheather/
Contributed by Marie.
Return to Top
|
The Hour (Ottawa)
November 25th, 2004
This latest offering from Mt. Baldy's favourite seeker is worrisome. Is
Cohen finally losing whatever it was he once had? In his old age (or
prolonged adolescence) he has taken to scrawling invented esoteric symbols
that signify, you know, spiritual things, all over the place. The liner
notes are covered in these doodles, and so is the music. The record kicks
off with a terrible, sax-laced adult contempo version of Lord Byron's Go No
More a-Roving dedicated to Cohen's late best friend, Irving Layton. And it
goes from there deeper into the ridiculous via an array of dubious backup
singers and assorted laughable instrumentals. Several songs, as well as the
album itself, are dedicated to dearly departed friends. The rest settle
scores with old lovers; there are a couple of halfhearted love songs, and of
course the requisite 9/11 ballad. Sad.
Contributed by Dick.
Return to Top
|
Stylus Magazine
November 2004
Are we moving towards some transcendental moment?
"Morning Glory", from Dear Heather
Well, are we?
Not so long ago, Leonard Cohen turned seventy years of age. Having spent so much of that time scribbling the most oblique, scholarly words on his blackening pages, you may be forgiven for thinking it’s time for something truly revelatory. Since he began writing (first in books of poetry, then novels—songwriting was originally only a ploy to raise dwindling funds), Cohen offered snapshots of personal experience tainted by religious or erotic terminology, seamlessly woven with elements of mythology from some of his most beloved scrolls. Explaining his first (and perhaps his most famous) song, "Suzanne", he said "everything happened exactly as it was written down". I’ve always hoped he’d elaborate; after all, he has so many gaps to fill, and so many interested people to tell. But, as his former rival and one-time collaborator Bob Dylan pours out his curious memoirs in a recently published autobiography, Chronicles, Cohen only baffles further.
When Woody Guthrie was dying from Huntington’s chorea, Bob Dylan made regular pilgrimages to his hero’s dwelling, eager to soak up everything he could of the man behind the music before it was too late. Even though he’s in reasonable health, increasingly often I find myself worrying that no one will do similar with Leonard Cohen. With the apparent complacency that has dogged his recent recordings (The lazily titled Ten New Songs suggesting disinterest and an album only to keep Columbia at bay, his incessant need to collaborate/cover/quote lengths of other wordsmiths), I can’t help but wonder if I’m more concerned than he is.
Perhaps it’s the recent death of Johnny Cash, perhaps that of Ray Charles—perhaps it’s the overbearingly mournful timbre that crawls all over Dear Heather which panics me so. It’s present in "Nightingale", a tribute to the late R&B vocalist Carl Anderson, 9/11 ode "On That Day" and the sleevenote dedication to Jack McClelland, a Canadian publisher who discovered Leonard way back when. In this climate, the speculation that Cohen will go into full retirement in the near future is inevitable, making this a potential parting shot of the songwriter.
Lord Byron’s "Go No More A-Roving" seems indicative of a man ready to wind down, but only in the tenderest way. It seems contradictory that something as destructive as nicotine could be responsible for a voice so soothing, so knowing. That same voice croons the closing cover of country classic "Tennessee Waltz", for once revisiting his (musical, not geographical) roots, and not before time. "Because Of" examines the way in which Leonard still seems to gain the attention of women, who have been "exceptionally kind" to his old age. But even his lovers fear the worst, insisting, "Look at me Leonard / Look at me one last time".
"Morning Glory" perfects the decaying stream-of-consciousness lyricism Michael Stipe made famous on "Country Feedback" whilst Frank Scott’s "Villanelle For Our Time" emerges as an empowering mantra over quiet, lounge jazz. So many of Dear Heather’s songs are effectively poetry readings set to music, and these experiments work best in the instances Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas are allowed to exercise their temperamental backing vocals to the full. Musically, the title track continues Cohen’s penchant for dated keyboard effects, whilst the obscure lyric repeats and reiterates in the hope that it might eventually mean something.
Despite the distraction provided by Heather’s winter-white legs, Dear Heather is essentially an album of eulogies. As honourable and unselfish as that concept is, we’re left to wonder exactly who—if the man himself is so preoccupied with the death of others—is documenting this phase of Leonard’s life? Really, we can only hope that this isn’t the end of Leonard’s story. There must be more. But if this is the end, then I’m sorry to report that Dear Heather is a particularly dour, unsatisfying way to end such an intriguing career.
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=2489
Contributed by Tom S.
Return to Top
|
Soundprint
November 2004
A collection of restrained pop that sounds
equally prepared for life and death
Nobody is neutral on Leonard Cohen-you either love him or dismiss him. This review is for those in the former camp, who will relish this collection, one of the most pop albums the poet has made. That's pop in the classic Frank Sinatra/Rosemary Clooney manner; these are bluesy songs of gentle heartbreak, expressed with the restraint of an adult who's lost everything yet dares to dream of redemption and forgiveness. It's also Cohen's most Zen album-minimal and empty, struggling with mortality, even more pared down than 2001's Ten New Songs. The title track could be a country waltz, but the lyric is a recitation of several unrhymed lines by a chorus of gravel-throated Cohens. "Go No More A-Roving" is a Byron lyric set to music inspired by Memphis soul; the melody of "Nightingale" echoes "The Minstrel Boy," and Cohen's Jew's Harp solo accents the song's yearning for a lost (or dead) lover. The album includes Cohen's first recordings of poetry as well. "To a Teacher," his eulogy for A.M. Klein, a recitation of frank Scott's "Villanelle for Our Time," and "Morning Glory"-the album's most Zen track, a meditation on enlightenment, or maybe death's approach, with a jazzy soundtrack of walking bass and vibra-harp.
Contributed by Dick.
Return to Top
|
Times Online UK
October 30, 2004
* * * * (5 Stars - Highest Rating)
For those who abandoned Leonard Cohen and his elegant ruminations around the time that they left university, the news that he continues to make albums may come as a surprise. One suspects that Cohen himself is amused by its improbability, too: after all, he has just turned 70 and has spent much of the past decade at a Buddhist monastery in California. His eleventh album, however, reveals that Cohen is as profound a poet as ever, even if nowadays he sounds like a poet unravelling the mysteries of life while fronting a lounge band on a cross-Channel ferry.
The tinny, ersatz backing actually makes Cohen’s oak-aged, lugubrious baritone seem more resonant than ever as the rueful old philosopher steals a few lines from Lord Byron, or meditates on September 11 before deciding its momentousness is inexpressible. Chiefly, though, he is concerned with the pleasures of women and the serenity that faith can bring.
The title track finds him transfixed by a female leg, while what may be a Bontempi organ gets jammed on "Bierkeller" setting in the background. Villanelle for Our Time, meanwhile, is magnificent. "From bitter searching of the heart, we rise to play a greater part," he intones, suggesting that 40 years spent anatomising his emotions have not been in vain.
Like so much great art, what initial | |
