Songs From a Room

My second Cohen this week! This one is a bit more varied than "Songs of," but it does get a little bit corny in the more Western-influenced tracks.

Favourite songs: A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes, Bird on a Wire, Story of Isaac, Tonight Will Be Fine

Least favourite songs: The Partisan

4/5

Pleasant enough gentle listening without being truly ground-breaking for me.

Me ha gustado "The Partisan" pero el resto aunque no sonaba mal no me ha interesado. Supongo que la única forma de disfrutar es con las letras en la mano leyendo las historias.

I've shared variations of this point before re: Cohen, but, like...

One of my partner's favorite genres is like acoustic singer-songwriter stuff. "Sad man with a guitar" music, as she calls it. And I cannot stand sad man with a guitar. What I need when I'm down is "Sad lady with a piano." Any case, I'm not Leonard Cohen's audience, and that's ok

(I can sometimes work with "sad man with piano" though, like I really like Warren Zevon a lot)

This really doesn't do it for me and I'm surprised this is still such a revered album.

Leonard just hasn't got a voice to carry an album with very mediocre songs. And the clever lyrics are rather dull.

The Leonard Cohen that actually became a bit darker and clever later in life is much more up my alley.

My favorite thing on this album is definitely the jaw harp. Really adds to the atmosphere and almost sounds like a synthesizer at times. Surprised that an instrument which seems so simple, almost like a toy, is able to be so expressive and versatile.

Story of Isaac sucks ass. I really don't see the appeal of this guy. He is continually flat, has the intonation of a dead goldfish and is just not interesting to listen to. Tonight Will Be Fine adds insult to injury with a goddamn recorder and whistle solo.

I was hungover, couldn't stomach Leonard Cohen that day.

Though this album isn't as good overall as the ones preceding and succeeding it, the first track is one of the most low-down gut punches you'll ever hear opening an album. I wish I'd not read some random review calling attention to the fact that the mouth harp is used on every track, because now I can't unhear it. I guess it was always just something in the atmosphere of the music for me, but now it's center stage. Like all Cohen's records, this one is delicate, intimate, and oh-so confessional. A kind of gentle yet earnest wrestling.

Not as awesome as I expected, given his reputation, but I suppose there had been less music back when this came out. All the songs were pretty similar, but bird on a wire stood out as really good, rather than just quite good.

Not as good as his debut or You Want It Darker which we've already listened to but still a very solid album.