Leonard Cohen Archives

Sneak Peaks: New Album Releases Week Of May 11th, 2015

Iman Lababedi / May 10, 2015

you know how how in poor societies, the denizens eat every part of an animal, my dad, who was raised poverty stricken, would eat the brains, the marrow in the bones, and the eyes of sheep. Well, Leonard Cohen has been doing the same thing with his music ever since he discovered all his money was embezzled. Two live albums, and now oddball covers from his concert soundchecks Can’t Forget: A Souvenir Of The Grand Tour. I’m not complaining at all, the one thing I’ve heard is a goodie. And while the Paul Weller, Surfer Blood, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and JD Souther, all have my attention., most anticipated remains Leonard Cohen.

Album Reviews, Slideshow

Best Albums Of 2014 # 3: Leonard Cohen's "Popular Problems"

Iman Lababedi / December 30, 2014

So, from the seeds of a truly devastating setback which ended his retirement at the age of 75, Cohen is now one of two (Dylan) maybe three (Bennett –though I didn’t like the Gaga album) , still capable of producing world class albums and he wouldn’t have known it if it wasn’t for his business manager.

Slideshow

10 Songs: Saturday, December 6th, 2014

Iman Lababedi / December 6, 2014

Save The Last Dance For Me – Leonard Cohen – You have to hear this, the picture late night song sung in a rasp and a wince and a warning, the Drifters had the teenage angst, but Cohen gets there slowly – A

rock nyc top 10 songs, Slideshow

rock nyc Top 33 Songs (In Order And Spotified) Through September 30th, 2014

Iman Lababedi / October 2, 2014

Slow – Leonard Cohen – His Greatest self portrait ever finds the man defining the race not being close to the swift but to he who reaches the end slowest, whether it be sex or life or God knows the blues. A work only those of us growing old faster than us will understand completely

Album Reviews, Slideshow

Best Albums Through September 30th, 2014

Iman Lababedi / October 1, 2014

Popular Problems – Leonard Cohen – He is melodic the way a bassoon is melodic, or maybe the way the memory of a teenage love is melodic, the contours remain there even if the details are lost forever and the two first songs are among the best he has ever written and everything else is damn near perfect as well.

Slideshow, Streaming

Leonard Cohen's "Popular Problems" Streaming On NPR

Iman Lababedi / September 16, 2014

It is so great it is the greatness that you find in later period Nabakov, like “Transparent Things” -and it is the ululating completeness of something like a mid-period Nabakov like “The Vane Sisters”. I guess I mean it is eastern European in nature.

rock nyc top 10 songs, Slideshow

rock nyc Top 29 Songs (In Order And Spotified) Through August 31st, 2014

Iman Lababedi / September 2, 2014

Nobody handles his age with the intelligence that Leonard does in this song, because as terrible as the world is, and it is pretty horrifying stuff, but it is nowhere as blue as his own mortality and mine of course, nothing smarter this year that’s for sure.

Slideshow

rock nyc Top 10 Songs week of 8-18-14

Iman Lababedi / August 22, 2014

This maybe the best ten songs list of the year. Right at the top are two songs which will be very high on my end of year list, along with a third at the very bottom which will also make the near top of the year, meanwhile three artists I am on the record as to loathing, McGraw, Chesney and alt-j came up with crackerjacks, Kimba, who I have never much noticed, has a good album (I underestimated it earlier this week).

Slideshow, Track Review

Leonard Cohen And Taylor Swift: Almost Like Shaking It Off

Iman Lababedi / August 20, 2014

Taylor responds to claims she can’t hold a man, indeed, seeing her ex with another woman, by dancing. Cohen reacts to hell by dancing the samba. And both react to troubles with humor. At the bottom, both these songs are darkly humorous. It is almost like shaking with laughter, it is almost like darkness. But it isn’t darkness yet.

rock nyc

Not With The Band: All My Favorite Rock Stars Are Gonna Die Soon

Alyson Camus / October 29, 2013

Mick Jagger is 69, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon are 72, David Bowie and Iggy Pop are 66, Paul McCartney is 71, and Leonard Cohen is 79! Even Bruce Springsteen is already 64, Stevie Wonder and Tom Waits are 63, and nobody is getting younger.