|
Leonard Cohen's Popular Problems is an uncharacteristically quick follow-up to 2012's Old Ideas. That record, cut in the aftermath of a multi-year tour, revitalized him as a recording artist. Producer Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Bryan Ferry) helms and plays on Popular Problems, and serves as co-writer on all but one tune. While Cohen's sound has revolved around keyboards since 1988's I'm Your Man, Leonard gets that the real power in the songwriter's lyrics are best relayed through his own own simple melodies. Everything here -- keys, female backing chorus, acoustic instrumentation, etc. -- is in their service. As always, Cohen's songs -- delivered in his deepest earth rasp -- offer protagonists who are ambivalent spiritual seekers, lusty, commitment-phobic lovers, and jaded, untrusting/untrustworthy world citizens. He is them, they are him: strangers hiding in plain sight. Opener "Slow" is paced by a blues vamp from an electric piano and kick drum. ."..You want to get there soon/I want to get there last..." is delivered in a streetwise croak. It's a fine career metaphor, too, but the hilarious double entendre gets amplified: ."..All your turns are tight/Let me catch my breath/I thought we had all night." "Almost Like the Blues" employs a 12-bar variant exoticized by hand percussion. Cohen juxtaposes visions of global horror with worry over bad reviews; he's culpable because of his vanity. Gospel illustrates some of the better songs here -- and there are no weak ones. It's used with razored effect on "Samson in New Orleans" to address the devastation -- physical, emotional, spiritual -- left by Hurricane Katrina. Cohen really attempts to sing "Did I Ever Love You." Though it comes out a measured growl, its impact is searing. It shifts from gospel to a country jaunt, only to circle back underscoring the bitter, vulnerable truth in the lyric. He observes: "The lemon trees blossom/The almond trees wither," before asking: "Was I ever someone/Who could love you forever?," but he knows the answer. The keyboards and tablas in "Nevermind" offer skeletal, tense funk to a poetic narrative about global hypocrisy and treachery. They're appended by Donna De Lory's Arabic chant for peace and safety in contrast to the lyric's scathing accusations. Killer. Lithe gospel returns on "Born in Chains," a gentle but gripping first-person account of spiritual seeking with references to Judaism, Christianity, and Zen: ."..I've heard the soul unfolds/In the chambers of its longing...But all the Ladders of the Night have fallen/Only darkness now/To lift the longing up." On set closer "You Got Me Singing," Cohen, accompanied only by acoustic guitar and violin, lays out hope: "You got me singing even though the world is gone/You got me thinking I'd like to carry on." It's an open-ended, affirmative sendoff. Popular Problems reveals that at 80, Cohen not only has plenty left, but is on top of his game. This is the most diverse, confident, and elegant recording he's released since 1995's The Future.
Condition:NEW.
TRACK LISTINGS
Disc 1
1 Slow (3:25)
2 Almost Like the Blues (3:28)
3 Samson in New Orleans (4:39)
4 A Street (3:32)
5 Did I Ever Love You (4:10)
6 My Oh My (3:36)
7 Nevermind (4:39)
8 Born in Chains (4:55)
9 You Got Me Singing (3:31)
|