Review: Leonard Cohen's 'You Want It Darker' Possibly His Darkest LP Yet

Review: Leonard Cohen's 'You Want It Darker' Possibly His Darkest LP Yet Review: Leonard Cohen's 'You Want It Darker' Possibly His Darkest LP Yet On his mark exemplary, "Thank heaven," Leonard Cohen sang about meeting "the Lord of Song." But on the title track of his new LP, the third in a late-amusement rally that has been as startlingly splendid as Bob Dylan's, Cohen brings that envisioned retribution with the Almighty more profound, articulating "Hineni," a Hebrew expression for tending to God that interprets as "Here I am." The punchline, beside the title's nervy test – genuine Cohen fans dependably need it darker – is that with his cantorial conveyance, the well known woman's man makes the expression sound kinda like "hello, child." truth be told, an improbable EDM remix of "You Want It Darker," by DJ Paul Kalkbrenner, transforms the expression into a move floor serenade – more confirmation of how much current soul still moves through Cohen's voice following five decades at work. This is Cohen's blessing to music significant others: a reasonably horrid, profoundly brilliant and profoundly graceful perspective, for the most part spiked with a sentimental drone and an existential wink. Taking after a series of records that have every felt like a swan tune, You Want It Darker might be Cohen's most unpleasant LP. At 82, it may likewise be his last. "I'm furious and I'm drained constantly," he sings on "Settlement," a stately parlor walk to piano and strings that blossoms from separation regret into reflections on the waste of time of religion. The Brylcreem-scented moderate move "Leaving the Table" comparatively glints amongst sentimental and otherworldly abdication, Bill Bottrell's electric guitar and steel fills glimmering like reflect ball shafts as the acclaimed rake regretfully demands, "I needn't bother with a significant other/The pitiable mammoth is manageable" – as beyond any doubt an indication of the End Times as Arctic dissolve. As on Cohen's 2014 Popular Problems, blues characterize the vibe. Be that as it may, different hues develop the account. The Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir, who surge over the title track, review Cohen's Jewish childhood in Montreal; "Voyaging Light" summons his halcyon years in Greece in the mid Sixties with his late dream Marianne Ihlen, the subject of "So Long, Marianne," who kicked the bucket in late July. "Goodnight, my fallen star ..." Cohen sings in a close whisper in the midst of bouzouki notes, similar to a man moving in an exhaust taverna in the wake of shutting time. Like Bowie's Blackstar and Dylan's long farewell, You Want It Darker is the sound of an ace soundtracking his exit, with guidance for those left behind. "Direct your way through the remains of the Altar and the Mall," he sings close to the collection's end, against a delicately skipping twang fiddle, his child Adam's unobtrusive guitar and Alison Krauss' saintly support vocals. It's what he's constantly done, helping whatever is left of us do likewise, decently well.