Sunday, October 28, 2012

Leonard Cohen, Songs of Leonard Cohen (side A)

It's easy to take 1966's Songs of Leonard Cohen for granted — it's an incredibly canonical and beloved album.  Many songs are beloved and well-crafted, including lyrics surprisingly dark for their time.  The album also captures an amazing recording of the nylon-string guitar and Cohen's voice, with a dark and flattering frequency balance.  John Simon's arrangements are tasteful and subtle, nicely complementing Cohen's great performances without distracting from them.  While the cover design features a prominent photo of Cohen's face, the blurry and strangely-cropped image becomes a flattering part of the design.  Whenever I hear "Suzanne", I appreciate that New Zealand primitivists The Garbage And The Flowers took their name from the lyrics.

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