Month: November 2011

“Show Me The Place”…is absolutely gorgeous… It makes me want to hear Old Ideas very, very badly. — Stereogum

On the scale of thrills, this is off the charts. A new single by Leonard Cohen,… It’s just beautiful. Yes, a simple song and a sad song…but beautiful. Personally, it makes me really, really want to hear the rest of the album. — CBC Radio 2

A beautiful new track from Leonard Cohen’s forthcoming new album — Shambhala Sunspace

Gorgeous track — Spinner

“Show Me The Place”… is a nuanced, understated piece that bodes well for a contemplative new record. — GQ (UK)

“Show Me the Place” makes it apparent that the Canadian song-poet’s game is still as sharp as ever, as he rumbles out his reverie over simple piano and organ accompaniment. — MTV

All rise: The church of Leonard Cohen is back in session. The piano progression that introduces the Fedora Man’s new single feels holy… Show Me the Place is a restrained spiritual… It touches on themes of love, god and mortality – no doubt the type of tried-and true allusions to be found within Cohen’s forthcoming album… This is about devotion, in whatever form one needs to take it. On her own single, cool star singer Feist asks, “How come you never go there?” And Cohen? He so goes there, one more time. — Toronto Globe and Mail

Leonard Cohen records the kind of music that can stop you dead in your tracks. Case in point: his uber-tender, heartstrings-pulling new single, “Show Me the Place,”… And from the sound of “Show Me the Place,” Cohen’s kind of fooling himself with the title of Old Ideas because this song is just, well, great. — Prefix Magazine

The song, entitled Show Me The Place, is a mournful yarn few others could deliver the way Cohen does…listen to the shiver-inducing track — Vancouver Sun

Leonard Cohen is back with a song as haunting as “Hallelujah,” and it alone is enough to be thankful for this year. — Huffington Post

Those expecting music in the vein of the big band setup of his recent world-conquering tour might be surprised by this subtle track, led by piano and quiet strings, with the ever present backing singers adding texture to Cohen’s rich, fragile, magical voice. — The Quietus

Leonard Cohen previews new album with elegant song. — Hartford Courant

Here’s something to be thankful for: a new Leonard Cohen song! In advance of Old Ideas…comes the starkly lovely new single “Show Me the Place.” Over bittersweet violin, stately piano, and back-up-singer coos, Cohen…asks in a beautifully grave vocal performance, to be shown “the place where you want your slave to go.” A ghostly organ enters for a brief bridge, and the whole placid drama wraps up with the singer wanting to see “the place where the suffering began.” It’s not “Hallelujah,” but it’s not far off, and bodes well for the new disc. — Spin

If that voice doesn’t break your heart, you don’t have one. — Rabbit Hole Urban Music (Australia)

Our first taste of the LP has arrived with the very good “Show Me The Place”, a pensive four minute lullaby of longing. — Pretty Much Amazing

The song is fantastic—those somber piano chords, that understated string section? The bleak gospel-soaked electric organ? Sounds like classic Cohen to me. -– Ology

The organic sounds—to say nothing of the lyrics…hark back to the themes and the palette of his early work, with organic instruments (piano, strings, choir) replacing the synthesizers that have dominated his work since 1988’s I’m Your Man. No telling if the rest of the album will follow suit, but regardless, it’s an exciting development. –- MSN

Con una voz cada vez más grave, y con la capacidad de componer canciones tan bonitas como ‘Show Me The Place’…una delicia sonora dulce y sentida, rebosante de poética y emoción. Sin duda solo aviva las ganas que tenemos de escuchar un nuevo disco de Leonard Cohen. — Indiespot (Spain)

“Show Me The Place”…es una balada introspectiva (piano, violines, coro eclesiástico) definida principalmente por el impacto escalofriante de la narración signada por aquella gravedad vocal y la sensibilidad extrema de la retórica típica, esa que analiza la naturaleza de las aflicciones humanas, el amor y el odio, la necesidad de creer… No somos los mismos después de toparnos con cada muestra de la inconmensurable grandeza Leonard Cohen. Por eso acá no se dejará de hablar de él. Jamás. — Rolling Stone (Argentina)

The first offering from the new Leonard Cohen album; listen to “Show Me The Place” here.

Pre-order ‘Old Ideas’ today and receive an instant download of “Show Me The Place”

Adam Cohen will be launching his European tour this October to showcase his upcoming album ‘Like A Man’ to be released starting Oct 3rd (Oct 4th in Canada). For the complete tour schedule and ticket information visit http://www.adamcohen.com/

Adam Cohen’s new album ‘Like A Man’ is now available in stores on CD and download.

“This album is very special for me – I’d never worked so fast, so boldly, so excitedly in a studio. I almost feel now as though I’d been hypnotized and charmed into a new way of working that was painless and joyous, where before it had been rather stressful. The result is an album that’s honest and true. I reached a personal target; this album is a benchmark for me, and I hope you enjoy it.”

You can buy your copy today at the following retailers:

UK – Amazon | iTunes | Play | hmv

Canada – Amazon | iTunes | hmv | Chapters Indigo

World – iTunes | Cooking Vinyl

17-ALBUM DELUXE BOX SET GATHERS HIS LIFETIME OF STUDIO AND CONCERT RECORDINGS, FROM 1967 TO 2009

MINI-LP REPLICA CD JACKETS HOUSE EVERY ALBUM – FROM HIS COLUMBIA DEBUT SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN (1967) THROUGH 2009’s SONGS FROM THE ROAD (CHRONICLE OF 2008-2009 TOURS)

Every album has been remastered from the original analogue master tapes

Limited edition release via www.LeonardCohen.com available starting
October 11, 2011, through Columbia/Legacy

Also: THE COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION – standard box set of 11 studio album CDs available starting October 11th

Order THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION by Leonard Cohen

Spanning 42 years of studio and concert albums released from 1967 to 2009, THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION box set gathers together a lifetime of recordings from Leonard Cohen. Every album has been remastered from the original analogue master tapes. Cohen celebrates his 77th birthday on September 21, 2011.

THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION contains all 17 of Cohen’s albums, each in a mini-LP replica CD jacket of the original release. Along with these, a lavish 36-page booklet will include all discographical annotations and recording information, as well as a brilliant 1,300-word essay by Pico Iyer. This limited edition box set is available now for pre-order via www.LeonardCohen.com in advance of the October 11th release date through Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTER­TAINMENT.

From the 1960s to the ’00s, the transcendent beauty of Leonard Cohen unfolds over the course of THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION. Individually, the 17 albums in the box set comprise:

– SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN (released December 1967);
– SONGS FROM A ROOM (April 1969);
– SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE (March 1971);
– LIVE SONGS (April 1973);
– NEW SKIN FOR THE OLD CEREMONY (August 1974);
– DEATH OF A LADIES’ MAN (November 1977);

– RECENT SONGS (September 1979);
– VARIOUS POSITIONS (February 1985);
– I’M YOUR MAN (February 1988);
– THE FUTURE (November 1992);
– COHEN LIVE – LEONARD COHEN IN CONCERT (June 1994);
– FIELD COMMANDER COHEN: TOUR OF 1979 (February 2001);
– TEN NEW SONGS (October 2001);
– DEAR HEATHER (October 2004);

– LIVE IN LONDON (March 2009);
– LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT 1970 (October 2009);
– SONGS FROM THE ROAD (October 2009).

At the same time, THE COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION, an 11-CD box set containing only Leonard Cohen’s studio recordings (that is, no live albums) will be available with staggered release dates around October 10th. This standard edition box set will include: SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN, SONGS FROM A ROOM, SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE, NEW SKIN FOR THE OLD CEREMONY, DEATH OF A LADIES’ MAN, RECENT SONGS, VARIOUS POSITIONS, I’M YOUR MAN, THE FUTURE, TEN NEW SONGS, and DEAR HEATHER. In all other respects – mini-LP replica CD jackets, 36-page booklet with essay – this box set will reflect its 17-CD counterpart.

“Cohen sits outside every category,” writes Iyer, “and throws together high culture and street slang, Buddha and the blues, so you never know what’s coming next… He’s lived in Nashville, in L.A. (and in the high dark mountains behind L.A. at the Mount Baldy Zen Center) as well as on the carless Greek island of Hydra, known for its donkeys and faraway monasteries. He’s inspired filmmakers from Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Oliver Stone and acted as the head of Interpol on Miami Vice. He’s written a classic Old Testament book of psalms and sung on Duets with Elton John. Everything you know of him is wrong.”

Pico Iyer, who annotated Columbia/Legacy’s The Essential Leonard Cohen double-CD collection nearly a decade ago, is a confidante of Cohen, who personally chose him for the job. The Oxford-born and Eton-educated author, essayist, novelist, biographer, and world-renowned travel writer has contributed articles to Conde Nast Traveler, Civilization, the New York Review of Books, Sports Illustrated, and the Times of London. Iyer’s books, which have been translated into many languages and published around the world, include Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul, the novels Cuba and the Night and Abandon.

As Iyer makes clear, Cohen’s four decades-plus odyssey at Columbia Records is impossible to categorize or pin down. Prolific and productive, he has shepherded at least three generations of music fans along on his journeys. Sabbaticals and hiatuses have ensued, always marked by album comebacks and concert tours that have left his followers breathless and awestruck.

“You’ll meet the earnest troubadour,” writes Iyer, “with ‘one hand on a hexagram and one hand on a girl’ and you’ll see the grave old philosopher who could be met on the backstreets of Jerusalem. You’ll hear the sound of a soul, alone, raising a cry to the heavens, and that of the silky man of the world accompanied by a chorus of female voices. You’ll think you’re listening to one of the great ironists of rock ‘n’ roll – ‘We met when we were almost young’ – and then you’ll hear him calling out for surrender.”

THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION by LEONARD COHEN (Columbia/Legacy 88697 87184 2)

COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS by LEONARD COHEN
(Columbia/Legacy 88697 96177 2)

LeonardCohen.com

Leonard Cohen is featured in a new Sony commercial in which he recites a specially written verse called “That’s What I Heard You Say”.

 

 

 

Leonard Cohen was recently presented with The Prince of Asturias Letters Award. This award is bestowed on the individual or group of individuals whose literary work represents a significant contribution to universal literature.

Watch Leonard’s acceptance speech HERE.