Posts Tagged ‘leonard cohen’

Leonard Cohen knows that’s a very sneaky title to use at this stage of his career. Offering us the knife and showing us where best to stab him in the back, you might expect most who hear this album to proffer an embarrassed “Oh no, not at all Len, it’s dynamic and exciting, what are you talking about?”

He chose the title. He knows what kind of music he’s made, and beating us to saying it aloud doesn’t make it any less true. So do not expect dynamic or exciting ideas here. Now you know that, the next few paragraphs should go a little easier. Actually, this is only his twelfth studio album. Strange to realise that of a singer/songwriter who’s been doing this since the mid ‘60s.

Less strange is the realisation that these songs tip Cohen’s singer/poet persona very much in the latter’s favour. He’s not singing so much as he is speaking lyrically. Like Dylan or Waits, a lifetime of smoking and hard living has eroded the man’s voice away into a sort of rumbling, raspy croak. Cohen never pretended to be a star vocalist, but that’s just fine by us. He’s 78 years old, and there’s more character and depth in his crackly whisper than half the warbly singers sitting at the toppermost of the poppermost.

Leonard Cohen has confirmed the details of his first studio album since 2004′s ‘Dear Heather‘.

Entitled ‘Old Ideas‘, the record will be released on January 31st 2012 in the US, with a UK release expected to come a day earlier, and will contain 10 previously unreleased tracks. A first taster from the album is likely to arrive within the next few days, when ‘Show Me The Place‘ is streamed online.

The legendary Leonard Cohen is working on a new album, his son Adam has revealed.

Adam Cohen told BBC News he has been called into the sessions on a consultancy basis, but was also quick to dismiss the idea of a full blown collaboration between himself and his father at some stage in the future.

Star of US hit TV show Gossip Girl Penn Badgley has won the race to portray Jeff Buckley in a forthcoming biopic of the late songwriter, according to Hollywood Life.

The publication quotes a source claiming actor Robert Pattinson, who had previously been considered as the front-runner for the role, has been beaten at the final post.

R.E.M’s 1992 single ‘Everybody Hurts‘, taken from their classic album ‘Automatic For The People‘, is the track most likely to cause a few tears amongst male music lovers, according to a new survey.

As the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival celebrates it’s 40th anniversary this week, we take a look at the incredible five days which, amidst the clash of hippy ideology, establishment and near-bankruptcy, came to define the shift of power from fans to business and the beginning of big-budget festivals.

Legendary Canadien singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen is set to resume his tour is Barcelona tonight after collapsing on stage in eastern Spain on Friday. Cohen, 75, was rushed to hopsital following the collapse, where he was reportedly diagnosed with food poisoning.

A YouTube video from Cohen’s performance in Valencia on Friday shows him beginning to fall to his feet halfway through ‘Bird On The Wire‘. After kneeling down several times during the song, Cohen then collapses during the saxophone solo. He is immediately tended to by his band, who quickly down their instruments to rush to Cohen’s side. An ambulance took Cohen to the Nueve de Octubre hospital, before he was discharged the next morning.

Later this week, Cohen is set to play a gig at Tel Aviv’s Ramat Gan stadium in Israel. Cohen’s promoter has insisted the gig is set to go ahead as planned: “The performance here will take place, and it will be excellent. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Cohen has played a series of live dates over the course of this year, and played his first US gig in fifteen years when he performed at the Beacon Theatre, NY in February.