New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Leonard Cohen's last studio album (2016)
Bennyboy
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by Bennyboy »

yopietro wrote:My god. Folks this album is as good as advertised. I'm on my second listening now. The production is super tasteful. The orchestrations well arranged with no whiff of synthesizer. The lyrics are as expected, superb. And these songs. These songs. They really burrow straight into your heart. This is a top tier Leonard Cohen album. And in light of the recent articles in the New Yorker and MacCleans, this record hits home in a deeper way.
Amen, brother, amen. It's a masterpiece.
PeGu
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by PeGu »

I just listened to the album for the very first time.
Thank God I was alone at home. This is a truly moving experience from beginning to end.
What a masterpiece (sorry to repeat the word that so many others have used before, but it can't be repeated often enough).
Lörrach 2008, Wiesbaden Wiesbaden 2010, Mannheim 2013
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Goldin
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by Goldin »

Thanks for sharing the link(s)!
While I'm not ready for the album yet, and the title song remains the only one I've listened to, I've shared a link in our Russian community, and everybody there seems to be happy about the new tunes!
Not only there, I guess, as the whole NCPR's site is currently down:
This portion of our site is having a bit of trouble at the moment.

We're so sorry for the trouble - we'll make it up to you...Stay tuned!
cariadonffol
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by cariadonffol »

I have been off work today (live in UK) and have only just seen the link, appropriately now the evening time. I am 28, my dad is 64. He had Leonard's first two LPs when they were out but did not know anything else about Leonard's following career until I discovered his music through covers by Rufus Wainwright and Madeleine Peyroux in 2004 and went exploring the originals and fell in love. I reintroduced my father to Leonard and have reignited his interest in his later work.

I thought it appropriate tonight that I should ask my dad to listen to the album together. We've just sat in the living room, with the lights low, an aged bottle of rum for further company. I closed my eyes, listening to these fresh words, and Leonard breathing and listening to the choir himself at one point.

At the conclusion I turned to my father who had his eyes closed, chin resting on his fists. A few moments of silent reflection. He declared it a masterpiece. 10/10. There is not a mis-step. It is solemn but not depressing. The sparse music throughout is touching and graceful and the familiar female backing on two songs is beautiful. Adam has to be commended on his excellent production. Leonard's voice is strong, not straining, and perfecetly weighted. Leonard's words come from a place of searching, longing for understanding, seeming filtered through Christian imagery. He writes about love in interesting ways, the love of God? The love of a woman? The love of life? And how do we interact and understand love and life. Leonard's searching for the answer. As am I, as are all of us. Leonard helps to steer the way.
Year by year
Month by month
Day by day
Thought by thought

It has been a privilege to listen tonight. Father and son listening to father and son.
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B4real
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by B4real »

Unfortunately, none of those links work in Australia :(

Nevermind, only a week to go and I'll physically have the album in my hands :D
It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to B4real ~ me
Attitude is a self-fulfilling prophecy ~ me ...... The magic of art is the truth of its lies ~ me ...... Only left-handers are in their right mind!
gibjoe
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by gibjoe »

Are we all ready to get this to number 1??? Buy early, buy often - our man deserves it!
Cate
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by Cate »

MarieM wrote:Folks in the US can listen to the streaming of the new album You Want It Darker on NPR. Here's their tweet:

NPR ‏@NPR
Preview the new album from Leonard Cohen, "You Want It Darker."
http://n.pr/2dBh7Uy

In Canada, the songs are available for streaming on CBC. Their tweet:

CBC Music | First Play: Leonard Cohen, You Want it Darker
http://www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/14478/first-pnard-cohen
Thanks Marie, just heard the title track on the radio a few minutes ago, I bet it will be on the top 20 next week ... can't wait to settle in and hear the whole album!
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Patrycja
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by Patrycja »

So we've got:

"I'm ready to die"

"... not ready to die"

"I said I was ready to die. I think that has been exaggerated. I propose to live forever. Thanks for coming friends, I hope we can do this again another time. I intend to live until 120"

"Some guys you just can't trust!"

Well then, we'll just have to take him at his word! (and the punch-out clock is hidden).

Thanks very much for the photos and update from the launch. Nice to see Leonard and Adam enjoying themselves. Beautiful photos. Thank you as well for the album links. Tempting, especially given the glowing article reviews and feedback from those who've heard it, but I think I'll wait for the physical album to fully delve in. Just feels like a special event to set aside time for. It's like Christmas, but two months earlier, so much the better.

Exciting!
Will... If It Be Your Will
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panjandrum
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by panjandrum »

Loving the album. On my third consecutive play-through now.

Is it my imagination or do I hear The Denvermen very strongly in "Leaving the Table"? Leonard's certainly of the age where he would have heard them "back in the day" (they pre-date Leonard's first album by something like 5 or 6 years...)
yopietro
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by yopietro »

Thanks for posting Marie. There were some nuggets there.
alb123
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by alb123 »

As I anxiously await the arrival of "You Want it Darker" next week, I was thrilled when I learned the entire album was available for streaming already. I hate hearing snippets of a new album. I need to hear the entire piece when listening for the first time. Anyway, I waited until about 1am (which was only four hours ago) so I could have a dead silent environment.

I consider myself extremely passionate about music. The artists that I really love, I must learn everything single bit of information about the artist(s), both personally and musically. While I do believe music should be interpretive we all know that more often than not the artist does have a certain set of thoughts behind the songs they write. Yes, some songs they'll admit that even they don't know what it's "about", but the words came to them and they found beauty in those words, so they were put together as an official song.

While I do believe my passion runs incredibly deep, I am so envious of those who can recognize an album as a "masterpiece" after only one or two listens. Music reviewers seem to be able to recognize greatness so quickly, so they can publish their reviews in a newspaper, magazine or on a website immediately. It often takes me weeks or even months to really digest a new album. If I looked back at my post history for Leonard's last two studio records, Popular Problems and Old Ideas, I'm positive I would see songs that I originally rated one way now considered to be a different grade since I've had the album for years.

You Want It Darker is going to be no different this time. I absolutely love the title track. The fact that it was available for listening to for quite some time now has allowed me to play it several times in one day if I wished. I'm not so sure how I feel about the rest of the album. Leonard's words are magnificent, but that's pretty much become a given at this point. Still, I haven't had a single other track grab me by the lapels and smack me with emotion the way so much of his previous work does.

I plan on giving the album a couple of more play thru's today. Hopefully, something will knock me off my socks. I have no doubt that something else on this album, besides the title track, will move me deeply once I've had a chance to fully absorb the record. I can never tell if it will take me a day or a year to fully appreciate a record. I hope this record won't take me a year to finish my analysis. The good news is that Leonard has stated he still wants to put out two more albums of work. That will keep me busy for a long, long time...
Waterbury, CT - May 14, 2009
Las Vegas, NV - Dec 11, 2010 (Final Show of Leonard's 3 year World Tour) INCREDIBLE!
Boston, MA - Dec 15, 2012 (Best L.C. concert I've been to!)
JudasPriest
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by JudasPriest »

Sublime piece of work. If I Didn't Have Your Love the only one not quite hitting the bullseye for me (yet). A little too sickly sweet perhaps? Early days though. The album as a whole I'm reasonably confident is at a minimum as good as Popular Problems which I love. Whether it will pull ahead remains to be seen with repeated plays but it's distinctly possible...
Bennyboy
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by Bennyboy »

Astonishing album, almost impossible to get my head around.
alb123
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by alb123 »

JudasPriest wrote:The album as a whole I'm reasonably confident is at a minimum as good as Popular Problems which I love. Whether it will pull ahead remains to be seen with repeated plays but it's distinctly possible...
I love Popular Problems. I think it was Leonard's best album since Ten New Songs...Perhaps even better! I really like Old Ideas, but he really nailed it with Popular Problems in my opinion. I often wonder how many songs Leonard has laying around on scraps of paper and in notebooks. It's well known that he often spends years working on a song before he records it. There must be so many unrecorded or demo pieces that have never seen the light of day. I say this because I know Leonard recently said that he'd like to make two more records. Something tells me he would never just hastily put some songs together just to fill up two sides of a record.
Waterbury, CT - May 14, 2009
Las Vegas, NV - Dec 11, 2010 (Final Show of Leonard's 3 year World Tour) INCREDIBLE!
Boston, MA - Dec 15, 2012 (Best L.C. concert I've been to!)
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gretabertella
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Re: New Album announced: 'You Want It Darker'

Post by gretabertella »

The album is... is... I don't know, just wow!
I think It Seemed the Better Way is one of the best songs Leonard has ever written, along with If It Be Your Will.
It's incredible.
The way he sings "But it's not the truth today" the second time makes me cry.
It's THE song, the absolute song.
I have no words.
(And Adam made a great, great job. Chapeau.)
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