Update on November 10: We just got news that Leonard Cohen has passed, only a short few weeks after releasing his final album, available below. The sad news comes from his Facebook page.
Leonard Cohen’s new album You Want It Darker is streaming free online for a limited time, thanks to NPR’s First Listen site. Now 82 years old, and sensing that time is running short, Cohen offers, writes Rolling Stone, a “gift to music lovers: a realistically grim, spiritually radiant and deeply poetic worldview, generally spiked with a romantic thrum and an existential wink.”
Hear the title track above. And stream the complete album right below. You can purchase your own copy of Cohen’s album on Amazon and iTunes. We’d also encourage you to read this new profile of Cohen, written by The New Yorker’s long-time editor David Remnick. It’s quite poignant.
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Related Content:
Young Leonard Cohen Reads His Poetry in 1966 (Before His Days as a Musician Began)
A Day in the Life of Zen Monk Leonard Cohen: A 1996 Documentary
Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen: The Poet-Musician Featured in a 1965 Documentary
Leonard Cohen Reads The Great World War I Poem, “In Flanders Fields”
I found this album amazing. I am older (67) and have always felt music was an expression of my life and those that I love. I recently lost my friend and partner of 38 years and so this spoke volumes to me. Thank you Leonard Cohen for this release of my emotions. Excellent work
A million candles burning for the love that never came.….. You want it darker.… Im ready my Lord.…
Leonard is the most brilliant poet I have ever listened to and read and he has a way of creating such a unique love force even when approaching life in black.….
I was lucky enough to work with him on I Am A Hotel in the 1980’s in Toronto and will never forget his sensitivity to the shoot and the people and how each person on set treated each other… He was an Original in so many ways and I was so lucky when in a shot the director decided that a handful of doves had to fly through the shot and the birds were thrown from a ladder towards Leonard on the set. One of the birds actually did not fly but dropped and hit the ladder… Leonard was appalled and my job was as a PA at the time responsible for driving him around so.… he stormed out of the set area and left the building with me in close pursuit along with other members of the production team.… Lets get out of here he said to me and off we drove in my very modest car and when we drove by a mall he told me to stop and we parked and walked to a liquor store and he bought a small mickey of whiskey and we sat at that mall for a bit drinking a bit.… no cell phones back then… and after about an hour he was ready to return on set.
I was so star struck and happy to be sitting beside the Great Leonard Cohen all dressed in black and speaking only about things that mattered… and he had a great sense of humour.… what a ladies man!!!!
I loved Leonard Cohen then and I love him still.… Thank you for being an original and being just YOU.… From Suzanne takes you down to the place by the river to this incredible new baby.…. A DIFFERENT POINT of VIEW always.…
Thank you… thank you.…
A loving fan.
I too have just lost my lifelong partner ‚best friend and wife of 40 years I am 60 years.We “got ” leonard from “Im your man” and then went back to earlier times, from suzanne onward.I read the article about his response to learning of her illness ‚if she stretched out her hand he wouldn’t be far behind her.My wife was still alive then .
I read with interest as always , today of his new album. Im still “waiting for the miricle”.outside the clasics no one I know speaks to the heart like leonard.
None can compete with the insightful beauty and pain in leonard’s lyrics
A genius i will always admire
An excellent review: http://nodepression.com/album-review/leonard-cohen%E2%80%99s-memento-mori?mc_cid=91280a52e3&mc_eid=d1f5a3f6e2
I think Cohen would have used the word “died” rather than the wimpy euphemism “passed”.
I love LC’s quotation about everything being cracked — that’s how the light gets let in. He was a great poet of our times and will continue to inspire us for many years to come.
He wasn’t afraid to go into the dark places — or if he was he didn’t let it stop him.
I hope that my own work will show some of his beautiful fearlessness.
Avell