The Essential Leonard Cohen

Thank you, Amazon, for this outstanding collection of songs. The poetry, the music and the voice of this genius will live long after we will be gone. I can't believe that he has passed away. He was working almost until his last breath. A man of knowledge, of incredible intellect and talent, kind, compassionate and modest, a man far away from this materialistic world, Leonard Cohen left us a priceless gift of his writing, poetry, music and voice for our souls and minds. A writer, a poet, a song writer, a musician, an incomparable singer, he deserved a Nobel Price for Literature. I bought two more collections of his songs - a DVD and a CD, including his last, You Want it Darker, which he recorded a month before he died, when he was very sick and in unbearable pain. I love all these three collections. I am waiting for his Book of Poems and Songs from Amazon. RIP, Mr. Cohen. Thank you.

great album!

Like his music.

I had been missing one of the CDs for years! So grateful to have the complete package again

For me one of his presentations of "Hallelujah" is almost intoxication and I can listen to it often and repetitively. This is not it, I wish it was. I was unable to get a pre-purchase sample so my purchase was a shot in the dark. I can only hope that the other 30 songs make this worth the money.

The name Leonard Cohen first came to my attention way back in the day when Suzanne was released. It was a fairly popular and much-covered song, but it never occurred to me to actually buy the album. I was into much musically heavier things at the time and so my awareness of Cohen gradually receded into distant memory. Nowadays, my musical interests are much wider and my pockets deeper, so I took a chance on Cohen's CD Ten New Songs when it was released several years ago. It took a while to get into, but I liked some of the songs immediately. My rule with music is that if I like a CD I've purchased by an unfamiliar artist, I buy something else by that artist also in order to give myself a broader enjoyment and understanding of their work. And so it went with Cohen. I picked up several more CDs and liked them enough to feel confident that I would be pleased with The Essential Leonard Cohen. I have read all the reviews posted here, both positive and negative, and observe that its a given with any compilation that one will always feel that some songs were included that shouldn't have been and some obvious winners omitted. My candidate for ejection is Alexandra Leaving. I would have much preferred to see Boogie Street included or possibly Joan of Arc in its stead. I think the CD is nicely divided into two periods because as several reviewers have noted, Cohen seems to have two voices. A lot of songs on the first CD one might classify as neo-folk, for lack of a better term. On this, I like Suzanne, The Partisan, Hallelujah, and I'm Your Man best. On the second CD, the music is more in the direction of soul tinged rock with the occasional nod to country. And Cohen's deepening voice on the second CD imbues the music with more mystery and even occasional menace. I prefer the second disc with its apocalyptic renderings of First We Take Manhattan and The Future. Cohen's blood-chilling delivery on the latter combined with its scathing lyrics should give everyone a lot to think about. Closing Time wouldn't be out of place in any country dancehall and could probably be an alt-country radio hit. A Thousand Kisses Deep is evocative of the work of Michael Franks during his Objects of Desire period. But next to The Future, you might find the live recording of the dreamy and romantic Dance Me To The End of Love to be the surprise best cut. It is really tremendous. Juxtaposed with the former, it shows Cohen to be a man of huge talent who can literately express the gamut of human emotion through song. This CD is not really for those who have all of Leonard Cohen's recordings already, but it is a suitable primer for anyone who wants an overview of this underrated musician's work.

The prose, the lyrics, the poetry! Incredible. I never bothered to listen to any of his pieces, other than Hallelujah (played and overplayed by practically everyone) because his infamous reputation as a depressing rambler preceded him. I, for one, saw no reason to pursue a depressing and anxiety-inducing medium; I have quite enough of that in the daily news, thank you very much. But good fortune (ok, nudging from a fan) got me to listen to a track on a night where I was in the right frame of mind (focused, relaxed, and ready for immersion). Phenomenal stuff. I can’t quite provide an academic description, I’m not a scholar of any sort (fellow plebeians: This here is a review for you), but the intricate layers of metaphors, parallels, allusions and symbols all intertwining to form this disorganized but poetic and somehow comprehensible theme, all set to appropriate (and generally haunting) music... Aaah. What a trip. Go for it!

Exactly what I ordered.

どの曲も美しく、また、コーエンの声の変遷も楽しめます。 吟遊詩人です。 リリックを少しずつ翻訳しながら、コーエン独特の言霊に感応しています。

Buen disco . Cuando más lo escucho me gusta más. Tiene dos cds que por el precio que vale no esta mal. He visto un pack de música de él a muy buen precio que no he dudado a comprar y que estoy esperando que venga con muchas ganas de disfrutarlo.

This is a great double CD. They both have many of Leonard's standard songs on them, and from different eras of his career. On one CD his older songs and his voice is more of a high bass or baritone. Very nice and youthful sounding. The other CD must have been recorded later, his voice is lower and huskier, more emotional and almost breathless at times. so more of a lower bass. Still very beautiful. The CD include some songs i hadn't heard before so I've been listening a lot. Among my favourites is Anthem - that's the one where he says, "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's where the light gets in." My new mantra for my life.

Una excelente recopilación de temas.

Wie erwartet ! Alles perfekt !