You Want It Darker

AlbumOct 21 / 20169 songs, 36m 13s
Singer-Songwriter Chamber Folk
Popular Highly Rated

*You Want It Darker* joins *Old Ideas* and *Popular Problems* in a trio of gorgeous, ruminative albums that find Cohen settling his affairs, spiritual (“Leaving the Table”), romantic (“If I Didn’t Have Your Love”), and otherwise. At 35, he sounded like an old man—at 82, he sounds eternal.

8.5 / 10

Leonard Cohen's 14th studio album feels like a pristine, piously crafted last testament, the informed conclusion of a lifetime of inquiry.

B

Leonard Cohen would be forgiven if he were in a more morose place than usual. A recent New Yorker profile revealed the 82-year-old isn’t in great health, and he’s aware that his time on Earth is growing ever finite. “I’ve got some work to do,” he told David Remnick. “Take care of business. I am ready to die. I hope…

9 / 10

No matter how dire things are, Leonard Cohen reminds us it can all get worse - we could be living in a world without Leonard Cohen.

The Canadian singer offers brooding and bleak truths on his fourteenth studio album

9.5 / 10

You want it darker? Is that a question or a dare?

Octogenarian lady's man seduces the eternal with grim, spiritual beauty. Our take.

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8 / 10

On the cover of this, his 14th full-length, Leonard Cohen sits, humbly checking off everything that is stereotypically "cool": sunglasses, h...

The bleak and sparse arrangements of Leonard Cohen’s 14th studio album make his repeated leave-taking all the more exquisite

The album is a wry reckoning of a lifetime’s worth of damaged relationships, upheld vows, and broken promises.

9 / 10

9.5 / 10

'You Want It Darker' by Leonard Cohen, album review by Stewart Wiseman. The full-length is now out on Sony/Columbia Records.

Despite all the recent talk about Leonard Cohen’s mortality, his wonderful new album suggests an artist determined to keep moving forward

80 %

A quick survey of Leonard Cohen’s discography reveals that the 82-year-old Canadian hasn’t always been the most prolific recording artist.

Album Reviews: Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker

4.0 / 5

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker review: How much darker can it get?

Leonard Cohen’s 14th studio album is a bleak masterpiece for hard times from pop’s longest-serving poet.

Now 82, Cohen's flame, and his humanity, still burns brightly

A slow joy-ride through the depths of the underworld. CD review by Mark Kidel

9 / 10