Rating:
Genre:
Folk
Release Date: 07/26/2008
In May 2006,
Leonard Cohen published his first collection of
poetry in 22 years,
Book of Longing, having previously used some of the material as songs on his most recent albums,
Ten New Songs (2001) and
Dear Heather (2004). The book touched on many of the themes he had explored throughout his writing career, including spiritualism (he had spent part of his time between books as a postulant at a Buddhist monastery), eroticism, and self-deprecating humor. On June 1, 2007, at
the Luminato Festival in Toronto, Ontario, composer
Philip Glass premiered his song cycle based on
Book of Longing, which is here given a two-CD recording.
Cohen is present on the album speaking (not singing) some of his poems, and
Glass also has set some of them to music, with singing by a soprano (
Dominique Plaisant), a mezzo-soprano (
Tara Hugo), a tenor (
Will Erat), and a bass-baritone (
Daniel Keeling). The obvious antecedent is
Glass' 1986 album
Songs from Liquid Days, which set lyrics by the likes of
Paul Simon and
Suzanne Vega, but perhaps a closer one is
Cohen's album
Death of a Ladies' Man (1977), his collaboration with
Phil Spector. It's not that
Book of Longing ever sounds like
Death of a Ladies' Man, but the similarity lies in the mixture of two distinct styles. For better or worse,
Death of a Ladies' Man sounds like what one would expect of the unlikely mixture of
Cohen's droll, deep-voiced singing with
Spector's elaborate production style, and
Book of Longing is, as one might expect, a fusion of
Cohen's poetic voice with
Glass' distinctive circular rhythmic motifs. It is actually somewhat more respectful of the text than
Songs from Liquid Days, although listeners still may find it odd to hear art songs in which
Cohen's sometimes R-rated language is sung in a formal style by classically trained voices. These selections alternate with a series of tracks, notably
"Not a Jew," "I Enjoyed the Laughter," "Don't Have the Proof," and
"I Am Now Able," in which
Cohen (without any musical backing) recites a very short poem either before or after a solo by an individual instrument (oboe, violin, saxophone, and cello, respectively). Fans of
Ten New Songs and
Dear Heather will hear some familiar phrases and references (e.g., "a thousand kisses deep" is the tag line of
"You Came to Me This Morning," as it is of the song
"A Thousand Kisses Deep"), although no complete song/poem has been repeated.
Cohen may still be at his best as his own interpreter, but this is one of the more interesting and ambitious attempts to recast his writing in musical form.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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