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Review Summary: Leonard Cohen's true masterpiece. Can I be honest? I still don’t understand the acclaim that surrounds Leonard Cohen’s debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Yes, it’s good, but a part of me couldn’t help but feel severely underwhelmed. After a few listens, I thought Cohen was going to be another one of those artists whom I appreciated and respected more than actually liked. I get to redeem myself, though, by proudly proclaiming that Songs of Love and Hate is nothing short of a masterpiece. This is the Leonard Cohen I was expecting to hear upon listening to his debut. It’s raw, emotional, unflinching, and I’ve seldom felt closer to an artist than while lying on my bed, with my headphones on, listening to Songs of Love and Hate.
As I’m sure you can deduce from the album’s title, the two themes that Cohen ceaselessly explores for roughly forty-four minutes are, love and hate. Through each song, Cohen also explores the feelings that invariably accompany these broader emotions by writing poignant lyrics and crafting some of the most original imagery I’ve ever listened to. Take “Dress Rehearsal Rag,” for example, a song filled with so much bitterness and hopelessness, that even past memories such as, “And you climbed the twilight mountains / and you sang about the view, / and everywhere you wandered / love seemed to go along with you,” can’t save the anonymous character from loneliness and a loss of identity. Not only does Cohen thoroughly explore the most human of emotions, but, as previously stated, he does so while painting vivid images in his listener’s head. Across these eight powerful songs, I can think of few better examples of Cohen’s ability to cultivate imagery than on “Diamonds in the Mine” when he sings, “Well, I saw the man in question, it was just the other night, / he was eating up a lady where the lions and Christians fight.” To conjure up what is clearly a very sexual act through what are two completely opposing forces speaks volumes for Cohen’s skill as a lyricist and storyteller.
Cohen’s lyrics are not only filled with some of the best imagery that music has to offer, but his use of metaphors deserve recognition, too. On “Sing Another Song, Boys,” Cohen sings “Ah, they’ll never, they’ll never ever reach the moon, / at least not the one that we’re after... / But let’s leave these lovers wondering / why they cannot have each other.” Here, Cohen beautifully uses the moon as a metaphor for the failure to reach sexual satisfaction with one another. It’s tragic, but Cohen is somehow able to capture this couple’s affair with so much ease that I find it to be almost romanticized. Along with being one of music’s premier lyricists, Cohen is also a skilled guitar player. This is evident right from the beginning on “Avalanche,” as the listener is assaulted with an angry guitar riff that manages to capture the same sense of loathing and hostility that is transparent in Cohen’s voice and lyrics. “Avalanche” may be Cohen’s best and most memorable riff on the album, it is to me anyway, but I assure you that the entire album is filled with great riffs that seamlessly compliment Cohen’s lyrics that never shy away from the pains and tortures that come with loving and hating another human being.
Songs of Love and Hate is an album that I’ve been enthralled by since I first listened to it a couple of years ago. It’s an album that on the first few listens it might have some apparent flaws, and for some Cohen’s voice may take some time to get used to. I’d be lying if I said I was in love with the last minute or so of “Sing Another Song, Boys” when Cohen’s voice becomes almost unbearable, but I can’t imagine the song without it, either. I suppose it’s one of those strange paradoxes that I can encounter every once in a while. But, really, this album presents Cohen at his all-time best. In eight songs that go by way too quickly despite being rather lengthy, he thoroughly examines what it’s like to love and hate, to feel isolated from the rest of humanity, and to want redemption, all through top-notch imagery and metaphors. If you’re looking for an album that’s emotionally devastating, yet beautiful and life-affirming at the same time, look no further.
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Album Rating: 5.0
Apologies if the review comes off a little unprofessional and written like an English essay at parts, couldn't help it though.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
I feel the exact same way about this album as you do with the s/t, so to each their own I guess.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
good review. still slightly prefer the debut but warm to this more and more with time.
Avalanche is a hell of an opener. also love Joan Of Arc and Famous Blue Raincoat.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
if you liked the imagery on this, you should love the imagery on the first one tbh
i could quote prob most cohen songs and they would have great lyrics tho
great review for the mos part, pos
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Great review, definitely my favorite Leonard Cohen album too
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Raincoat rules
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
I do like Cohen's debut, and it does contain some wonderful imagery and some of his best songs. I suppose, though, I just never formed a connection with it as I did with this one.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Feels too tedious, Cohen's songwriting is far better on the first two albums, imo. This album feels like he spent 90% of his energy on the fantastic lyrics and then said "whoa, i'm not writing a book, better write some melodies as well" and thus, the songs found here were created. it's very atmospheric, but I can't say anything stands out. Just my 2 cents, anyway, solid review mate! ;)
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
one of the best albums ever. every line is so clear and uttered with such earth-shaking permanence... it's like i understand every line just by the way he enunciates it. as far as clarity, the only comparable things are Bob Dylan and the Beatles imo
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Cohen >>> Dylan
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
you could make a case for that. Dylan comes out on top just barely in my mind. he can get a little more surreal without losing sight of his message
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Cohen transcends so much more. Theres an atmosphere to his music that Dylan lacks.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Dylan never struck a tone as precise as the one on this album, that's for sure. but the atmospheres he made definitely fit his lyrics, and the way he sung them. the title track on Highway 61 comes to mind
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
As precise? Please explain that
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
it's all opinions as to who is better, but just for conversation's sake dylan>>>>cohen imo, it's not even close. and of course he has atmosphere, it's just different from Cohen's. Cohen is mainly depressing and romantic. Dylan could be aggressive(masters of war), epic (hard rain's gonna fall), humorous (tombstone blues, subterranean homesick blues, highway 61 etc.), romantic (she belongs to me, sad eyed lady), depressing (pity the poor immigrant), heartbreaking (one of us must know).
i could go on, but my main point is that cohen was never very diverse in his "emotional states". if you only heard the debut, you captured the majority of cohen's musical style. if you only heard freewheelin', you only encountered the tip of the iceberg, imo.
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