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INDEPENDENT (UK) REVIEW OF BLUE ALERT - Anjani = LC's wife?
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:09 pm
by david birkett
Album: Anjani
Blue Alert, COLUMBIA
By Andy Gill
Published: 21 July 2006
Anjani Thomas is the Hawaiian-born wife and musical protégée of Leonard Cohen, who co-wrote and produced the 10 songs that make up Blue Alert in a style that hovers midway between the sensuous simplicity of his own Ten New Songs and the cocktail-jazz croonery of Norah Jones and Katie Melua. Most tracks feature just sparse piano settings, occasionally underscored by organ or illuminated by vibes, over which Anjani's smoky-silky vocals lounge languidly as she reflects upon the myriad mysteries of love. The character of Cohen is silently discernible in the meticulous craft of lines like "Visions of her drawing near/Arise, abide, and disappear", and in striking images such as "Leave to the foghorns our lonesome story", which brings a suitably misty ambience to the Bay Area affair of "The Golden Gate". Only on the concluding "Thanks for the Dance" - a perennial Cohen romantic image - does the mood change significantly, with wistful clarinet and a poignant palm-court cafe arrangement helping celebrate fading pleasures in a bittersweet manner appropriate to such a collusion of Svengali and Trilby: "Thanks for the dance/And the baby I carried/It was almost a daughter or son."
WIFE? Is this so?
David
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:21 am
by lizzytysh
Mmmm.... in spirit, at least
. I think this reporter spoke out of a lack of knowledge.
Still ~ would anyone be surprized if there were a secret chord
?
~ Lizzy
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:56 am
by dick
Think he said in an interview --- "we colloborate -- in music and in our daily lives...."
on another he said.. "we are neighbors in the deepest sense"
They are a wonderfully "in love" pair ...
let's wish them well!
Let's wish them well
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:17 pm
by david birkett
Hallelujah to that.
This mistaken use of 'wife' and the recent Telegraph attribution of a quote to Cohen rather than to a character in one of his novels, do provide an interesting indication that fact-checking is not alive and well in journalism.
Or was it ever thus?
Blue Alert
Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:17 am
by John Etherington
Re the reference to Leonard's wife, I don't think we have to take this too literally (let's say "almost a wife" ). As it happens, I'm pretty certain that Leonard has refererred to Suzanne as his "wife", in the past. Meanwhile, I received my own copy of "Blue Alert" today...and what a wonderful surprise! I've just listened to it, in exactly the right space, and it exceeds all expectations. It took me a couple of tracks to get used to Anjani's voice, but come "The Golden Gate" I was hooked. I sense that this whole project may be one of Leonard's master-strokes, and I hope I can find enough quiet moments to give it the attention that it deserves. It has also given me the incentive to give more time to "Dear Heather" which I have not previously done. I love the picture of Anjani holding the cup, and the pic on the back of the booklet could at a glance be mistaken for Woody Allen and Soon-Yi (and that's in no way intended as an insult!).
Love to all, John E
Golden Gate
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:31 pm
by david birkett
I sense I am going to become very tedious on this subject and may resort to clutching passers-by in the street, in the style of the Ancient Mariner, but yes, I think Golden Gate is a modern masterpiece.
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:33 pm
by lizzytysh
I'm only teasing, of course... I don't really believe that Leonard and Anjani have taken any legal steps. However, they are certainly a couple of the highest order.
I'm so glad to see that you share my enthusiasm and appreciation of "Blue Alert," John. I haven't selected one song above all the rest, yet. We'll see how/if that goes. I hope you're able to find your "quiet moments" for listening ~ I won't recommend they be whilst driving your car
, though it was a drive I'll never forget
.
Very funny, David... man on the street
.
~ Lizzy