1. Suzanne 2. Sisters of Mercy 3. The Stranger Song 4. Hey, That s No Way to Say Goodbye 5. Master Song 6. Bird on a Wire 7. The Partisan 8. Famous Blue Raincoat 9. Chelsea Hotel No. 2 10. Take This Longing 11. Who by Fire 12. The Guests 13. Hallelujah 14. If It Be Your Will 15. Night Comes On 16. I m Your Man 17. Everybody Knows 18. Tower of Song

This two-disc retrospective traces the Canadian bard s musical maturity from poet and novelist who sang a little to multidimensional artist whose oracular vocals and increasingly rich arrangements are every bit as compelling as his verse. Even when Cohen came to prominence through the 1960s songcraft of Suzanne and Bird on a Wire, the folksinger tag never really fit. Later highlights ranging from the deadpan drollery of Tower of Song and Everybody Knows to the apocalyptic anthemry of First We Take Manhattan and Democracy suggest that other labels might be more appropriate: cabaret surrealist, spiritual gadfly, sensual prophet, agent provocateur. Cohen chose the selections, drawing more than half of the 31 tracks from three landmark albums--his 1967 debut Songs of Leonard Cohen, 1988 s I m Your Man, and 1992 s The Future--along with four from 2001 s Ten New Songs. The collection justifies its title as deep as it goes, though it s a shame that Cohen s commercial profile couldn t justify ...

#The Essential Leonard Cohen [LIMITED EDITION] [ORIGINAL RECO (2004-06-29) The Essential Leonard Cohen [LIMITED EDITION] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]~ Leonard Cohen is an amazing collection of cohens awesome tallent for lyric writing and his scrappy but loveable vocals. He is a serious man: yet it is never pretentious or boring. Which often happens with other vocalists of his God given tallent.

#cheatin and stuff (2004-05-08) Leonard Cohen is the one man I would cheat on my husband with. Yes, ma am.

#Potrait of An Artist As Both A Sage and Sinner (2004-05-03) The beauty of Leonard Cohen is he has always followed his own eccentric path and I see no duality between Cohen, the young romantic rake who ages into the embittered sensualist. It was always clear that Field Commander L. Cohen was going to dance us to the end of love, regardless of the consequences. Wheter it s the young revolutionary partisan, or the world weary cynic railing against the excesses of democracy, Cohen has never been satisfied with the political or moral status quo. His career is based on dissatisfaction wi...

#A Suitable Primer (2004-03-29) 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 w...

#Thank God for Leonard Cohen (2004-01-04) This is a must for any Leonard Cohen complete-ist s collection! I have every CD he s ever put out and yet I find myself frequently choosing this set in order to conveniently listen to favorites from a variety of Leonard s previous CDs. A fabulous collection from an amazing artist!

1. Avalanche 2. Last Year s Man 3. Dress Rehearsal Rag 4. Diamonds in the Mine 5. Love Calls You by Your Name 6. Famous Blue Raincoat 7. Sing Another Song, Boys 8. Joan of Arc 9. Dress Rehearsal Rag [Early Version][#][*]

#Contrary to popular opinion ... (2008-08-22) . . . Cohen could be harsh and bitter long before his collaboration with Phil Spector in 1978 that led to the much maligned Death of a Ladies Man. Other musician seem to like these songs more than Cohen does, for the collection Essential Leonard Cohen he selected only one track from this album, Famous Blue Raincoat. Among those who highly esteem Songs of Love and Hate is Jennifer Warnes who covers Famous Blue Raincoat on her album of the same name which also contains a duet with Cohen on a longer version of Joan of Arc. On the soundtra...

1. Bird on the Wire 2. Story Of Issac 3. A Bunch Of Lonesome Heroes 4. The Partisan 5. Seems So Long Ago, Nancy 6. The Old Revolution 7. The Butcher 8. You Know Who I Am 9. Lady Midnight 10. Tonight Will Be Fine

I choose the rooms that I live in with care / The windows are small and the walls almost bare, Leonard Cohen sings in a particularly telling couplet in Tonight Will Be Fine, one of the highlights in this aptly titled album from 1969. The Canadian poet-performer s sophomore release has the sub rosa feel of an attic hideaway, thanks in part to Bob Johnston s restrained production. Cohen s near-monotone vocals are suitable for conveying his finely honed, meditative musings but--at this stage in his development--not much else. Johnston s soundscapes aren t as beguiling as the ones John Simon created for Cohen s superior debut, Songs of Leonard Cohen, though lovely orchestral shadings flatter such Cohen classics as the oft-covered Bird on the Wire and Story of Isaac. Songs from a Room is only a secondary effort when it s stacked up against its consummate predecessor, But by any other measurement, it s an exceptionally literate and enigmatic recording by a true original. --Steven Stolder

#Masterpiece enhanced (2007-07-06) Leonard Cohen followed up his debut album with another masterpiece, this collection of magnificent songs of solitude, despair and resignation. Besides The Partisan, a song about the French resistance with its beautiful French verses and female vocals, all compositions are by Cohen. The most popular number here is Bird On A Wire that has been covered by artists as diverse as Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Judy Collins, Rita Coolidge, Tim Hardin, The Neville Brothers and Jennifer Warnes. For some reason, the opening lines of Bunch Of Lonesome Heroes make me ...

1. Suzanne 2. Master Song 3. Winter Lady 4. Stranger Song 5. Sisters of Mercy 6. So Long, Marianne 7. Hey, That s No Way to Say Goodbye 8. Stories of the Street 9. Teachers 10. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong 11. Store Room [#][*] 12. Blessed Is the Memory [#][*]

#The Perfect Debut Album (2008-07-03) Flawless. Perfect. Awesome. Not a bad song. Lyrically brilliant. Cold, despairing, warm, optimistic and deep.

#Original masterpiece enhanced (2007-05-15) Cohen s timeless debut has been enhanced by the addition of 2 extra tracks. The lilting poetry of Suzanne lures the listener into his world of romantic despair while introducing the essence of his sound: a deep monotone framed by sublime female backing vocals over simple but engaging melodies. Master Song, Winter Lady and Stranger Song reinforce the desolate landscape although the melodies are less immediate. Cohen s genius shines brightly on the immortal Sisters Of Mercy, a strange mixture of the spiritual and the sensual that must be one ...

1. Everybody Knows - Don Henley 2. Coming Back to You - Trisha Yearwood 3. Sisters of Mercy - The Chieftains, Sting 4. Hallelujah - Bono 5. Famous Blue Raincoat - Tori Amos 6. Ain t No Cure for Love - Aaron Neville 7. I m Your Man - Elton John 8. Bird on a Wire - Willie Nelson 9. Suzanne - Peter Gabriel 10. Light as the Breeze - Billy Joel 11. If It Be Your Will - Jann Arden 12. Story of Isaac - Suzanne Vega 13. Coming Back to You - Martin L. Gore

If ever an artist deserved the tribute-album treatment, it s Leonard Cohen, an intermittently fascinating songwriter but perhaps the worst singer to ever release more than one major-label album. Cohen has never written a song which couldn t be improved by someone else singing it, and it s no coincidence that he s been the subject of three tribute albums. The latest is Tower of Song, which turns Cohen s work over to such middle-brow pop stars as Don Henley, Billy Joel, and Suzanne Vega. The results from this new project are mixed. Melodramatic, angst-ridden vocals by Tori Amos (Famous Blue Raincoat) and Peter Gabriel (Suzanne) emphasize Cohen s narcissism and purple poetry. On the other hand, Elton John delivers a delightfully campy, irreverent reading of I m Your Man, and Sting joins the Chieftains for a nicely understated, Celtic-folk arrangement of Sisters of Mercy. --Geoffrey Himes

#Good and Bad (2007-07-03) First the bad - Bono butchers Hallelujah. There is no other way to describe it (his ego seems to have got the better of him - surprise, surprise). It and Joan of Arc are my two favourite Cohen songs. However, you can do what I do and just skip it. The rest is all good. I think that Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat is better than Amos but not by much. Don Henley s Everybody Knows gets repeat plays from me - a case of a voice perfectly fitting a song. I thought Yearwood s cover of Coming Back To You was very good and I am not a Country fan. Anyone who like...

#Eclectic mix (2006-06-08) Reading other reviews, i noticed the disdain for Bono s version of Haleluyah. I, however, LOVE Bono s take on the song. My only reservation is regarding the country-style interpreatations (Trisha Yearwood, Aaron Neville) (strangely, i rather liked Willie Nelson s version of Bird on a Wire), but that is only because I don t much like country. Otherwise, these are great, imaginative interpretations of Cohen s tunes: Tori Amos voice is amazingly haunting for a very haunting song, and Billy Joel s Breeze is fantasticly bluesy. I love this CD in my car, as it...

#Not so great tribute... (2004-07-07) I like many of the singers on this ",tribute", CD (except Bono - I think He is a real fake), but Cohen sings his songs best (just like Gilbert Becaud, Neil Diamond etc. ) and his voice is just fine! Don`t spend any money for this CD.

#No one sings Cohen like Cohen (2004-01-30) Like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen s voice is apparently an acquired taste. The charge is that he can t sing, but his brilliant songs compensate for that wretched voice. Nonsense. The worldly-wise voice of Cohen s later recordings is as perfect an instrument for his lyrics as Dylan s rough and creaky voice is for his. No one sings Cohen like Cohen, and the proof is in Tower of Song, the second album (I m Your Fan was the first) in which a diverse group of performers try their luck with the Canadian bard s impressive songbook. For the Cohen f...

#Some really great covers (2003-05-04) There seem to be some very mixed reviews about this album on amazon[. com], and I feel the need to jump in with my own. First of all, let me say that I adore Leonard Cohen, the man is brilliant. However, as much as I enjoy listening to the master himself, I also enjoy listening to other people s interpretations of his work. Overall, I thought that this was a good tribute album and I listen to it frequently. However there were some disappointements. Don Henley s (Everybody Knows) & Sting s (Sisters of Mercy) renditions are rather boring. Bono...