Leonard Cohen: Songs of Love and Hate

I got this a very long time ago. It may have been while I was still at school. There was so little information then, and we just had to hunt down what snippets we could. I'd heard of Leonard Cohen in passing a few times. I'd not (knowingly) heard any of his songs; just heard him mentioned in the same breath as Bob, which was enough to pique my interest. So where to start? These were the days when choice was determined by (a) what was available of the 'back catalogue' in the local record shop, (b) whether any of the albums were on special offer, and (c) which cover I liked most. Hence I ended up with Songs of Love and Hate.

I wish I'd got Songs of Leonard Cohen instead. I watched my DVD of Herzog's Fata Morgana a couple of weeks ago on holiday, and it features three songs from that album. I felt like the musical backing for Cohen's vocals had more energy and interest, though you never can be sure, because it may just have been that the images enhanced it.

Yet (perhaps stating the obvious) the setting for Cohen's words and singing is incredibly important. You may say they look great on the page, too — and they do — but I think that's because you hear them in your head at the same time.

It's not that I hated, or hate, this album, but in the '80s I was sufficiently indifferent and underwhelmed to be put off buying any more of his stuff for about a decade, until I heard The Future on the radio.

Have you noticed how Wikipedia gives fans the opportunity to share their most cherished insights and theories, prefaced with phrases like "the observant listener may notice" and "even more interestingly…"?

MusicBrainz entry for this album Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in small part at Last.fm Listen to this album in full at We7