Some moments in a year are just like that: it is like the taste of the year is suddenly evident, approved. This moment, the first week in February, boils down to three major releases, all singer-songwriters, all major statements.
Leonard Cohen – Going Home
Craig Finn – Clear Mind Full Eyes
Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
The take is just about like this: all of them are very, very good albums. None of them are great, but none of them are close to a disappointment. That's my claim.
Here are the flaws in the albums:
Leonard is a bore, croaking about loving and croaking.
Craig is the property of Jesus who won't stop thumping you with his Bible and his album is inconsistent.
Lana is the definition of a shallow thinking dealing deeply with shallow subjects.
Here is why they work.
Leonard can write a song.
Craig can write a melody.
Lana is just so fucking weird.
Leonard, Lana and Craig are, all three of them, somewhat subdued. It goes mid-tempo, slower, slowest. Cohen crawls out of the wreckage before sliding back in, for Lana love always means saying you have to say your stories, and Craig keeps coming right up against Jesus. Craig is beyond a memorable melodicist, at his best the songs implant themselves to your ear, Cohen and Del Rey need numerous listens. The most amusingly named song of the lot is Cohen's "Lullaby". Which sounds like he is singing Henry Fonda to sleep in "Once Upon A Time In America". The most confused number on all three albums is "Honolulu Blues" where Craig can't figure out how Missionaries can help third world people by singing hymns. The saddest song is also Craig's, his "Terrified Eyes" is gut wrenching, the most self serving is Cohen's "Going Home". The best opening of am album is Born To Die's first four, we know em all but they sound cool one after another, and even number five, "Diet Mountain Dew". Craig peaks highest, Lana's most consistent, Cohen's truest to itself.
Lana has the worst haircut, Cohen the worst body, and Craig won't get off his knees.
Of the three albums, I like Cohen least, but then I always have liked him least. At Cohen's best, sometimes for entire albums, I can get over all his songs sounding alike and his voice sounding like a truck rolling over loose gravel, because, somewhere under the sound, there is a great song lurking. Plus the man can write a lyric.
I like Lana the most because it is an amazingly consistent, low ball, sex songs for manic depressives.
And I am most unsure about Finn… I go between love and indifference. Perhaps when I see his set at Mercury next week, I will have a better feel for the situation.
Grades:
Lana: A
Craig: A-
Cohen: B