Old Ideas
On *Old Ideas*, his 12th studio album, the iconic singer/songwriter/poet continues his exploration of the spiritual, the sensual, and the cycle of life over the course of 10 songs. His unexcitable, half-spoken baritone is a calming, lyrical guide, with vocalists Dana Glover and The Webb Sisters and longtime collaborators Jennifer Warnes and Sharon Robinson providing tonal contrasts. With dual piano and organ accompaniment, “Show Me the Place” has the solemn levity of a modern hymn. The bluesy “Darkness” and the cabaret-friendly “Different Sides” showcase Cohen’s noirish and uptempo sides. “Banjo\" has a rural North Americana arrangement, appropriately enough, with an unexpected, Dixieland-like clarinet-and-trumpet interlude.
Leonard Cohen's 12th studio LP is a spare, low-key album rooted in blues and gospel-- maybe the closest thing he's made to "folk" music since the early 1970s.
Leonard Cohen is a poet and a notorious perfectionist, which means he chooses his words like most people pick spouses. As a title for his first studio album in eight years, Old Ideas fits perfectly, both for what it signifies (yet another return to the themes that have obsessed the 77-year-old singer-songwriter since…
You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but when the hound in question is a lyricist and songwriter of such magnitude as the one and only [a]Leonard Cohen[/a], it’s perfectly acceptable for them to attack your soul with the same sweet sledgehammer they’ve been wielding for the last 45 years.
Anyone who was hoping that Old Ideas, the long awaited new studio album from Leonard Cohen would reveal a poet who finally realized that the glass might be half full after all, will be sorely disappointed with these ten new songs. The rest of us who harbor no such expectations or illusions are in for a treat as the Montreal singer's newest collection is - hands down - his best studio album since I'm Your Man came out in 1988.
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Leonard Cohen is back, older and even wiser, with an album that's typically dark and twinkling, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>
There’s a sense throughout Old Ideas of Leonard Cohen facing a void and welcoming its emptiness.
<p>Humour and sincerity sit side by side on another fine album from Leonard Cohen, writes <strong>Maddy Costa </strong></p>
Leonard Cohen, a veteran poet and singer-songwriter if ever there was one, gets away with it.
Based on the title of its lead single ("Going Home"), you might expect Old Ideas to be a very somber, reflective record –- one of the sorts that Johnny Cash was recording in his final years, when he embraced the fact that he was nearing the end of his life and created some of his
Neil McCormick reviews Old Ideas, Leonard Cohen's first new album of original songs in seven years.
Aged 77, the master wordsmith returns with customary grace, humour and irreverence. CD review by Graeme Thomson