- Audio CD (9 Oct 2001)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Import
- Label: Sony
- ASIN: B00005Q45W
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette | Vinyl | Mini-Disc | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 371,442 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. In My Secret Life |
| 2. A Thousand Kisses Deep |
| 3. That Don't Make It Junk |
| 4. Here It Is |
| 5. Love Itself |
| 6. By The Rivers Dark |
| 7. Alexandra Leaving |
| 8. You Have Loved Enough |
| 9. Boogie Street |
| 10. The Land Of Plenty |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
For the nine years prior to the release of Ten New Songs the legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen was mostly in a Zen monastery, obsessively rewriting and polishing the oblique, lapidary lyrics for this austere collection. Ten New Songs is arguably Sharon Robinson's record as much as Cohen's--she co-wrote all the songs, plays most of the instruments (primarily a synth that seems to have freshly emerged from a chintzy 1984 power ballad) and accompanies Cohen's gloomy croak with her own crooning. This is the most subdued album Cohen's ever made, which is saying something. It's as if he no longer has time for anything in music or performance that could alter the meaning and force of his words. --Douglas Wolk
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
103 of 104 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Songs of Age and Loss,
By A Customer
This review is from: Ten New Songs (Audio CD)
After nine years since Leonard Cohen's last studio album The Future, was Ten New Songs worth the wait? Mostly, yes. There are three songs on the album which seem destined to join other Cohen classics - the pacy opening track "In My Secret Life", the rich and haunting "A Thousand Kisses Deep" and witty, urban-centered "Boogie Street" in which Cohen seems to be saying goodbye to his years as a zen monk on a mountain outside Los Angeles and coming back into the real world of traffic jams.Another highlight is the death-haunted "Here It Is", which unexpectedly telescopes romantic love with sickness, drunken falls, bedpans "cardboard and piss" and the thudding, powerful "By the Rivers Dark" which celebrates a life torn between the pleasures of Babylon and a nameless destructive force. Cohen's voice is as weatherbeaten and low as you'd expect, and if anything even deeper and lower than on The Future, and is beautifully counterpointed by co-writer Sharon Robinson's delicate choruses and backing. The most exquisitely melancholy song on the whole album is surely "Alexandra Leaving". Like so much of Cohen's music this is music for lonely listeners in lonely rooms, or lonely drivers heading across a quiet landscape at dusk. Though Ten New Songs is synthesizer-based and has many stylistic similarities to The Future the album is significantly different and is much more personal, with no political/social commentary apart from the gestures of the disappointingly weak final track "The Land of Plenty". The arrangements are more stripped down than on The Future (not always a good thing - the synthesizer drumbeat is at times oddly amateurish). But the mild blemishes don't spoil the overall effect of the album, which is one of those that grows on you with repeated listening. Cohen's often under-rated sense of humour is much in evidence, notably in the lines "I fought against the bottle, / But I had to do it drunk". So too is his lyric genius: the line "When hatred with his package comes" reverberates with somber meaning. These are songs of age and loss, rueful but life-affirming, with a sense of toughness and endurance. On the whole, Ten New Songs is a mellow, haunting album. It's as good as, maybe even better than, The Future, but not quite up to the dazzling standard of I'm Your Man.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a long wait but worth it,
By john.dalzell2@btinternet.com (Errol,Perthshire,Scotland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ten New Songs (Audio CD)
The great man has returned with more greats---the first three tracks are instantly likeable;A Thousand Kisses deep having tones of The Miracle from The Future album-----the other seven tracks take a bit of listening to;but become stronger and more meaningful with each replay--this is an album for a darkened room,tranquility, and time apart to really listen to lyrics and the voices,and savour the moments.This man always sends those shivers of delight and amazement through me--don't leave it too long til next time Mr.Cohen.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This one grows on you,
By RAButterworth (Woodford Green, Essex, GB) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ten New Songs (Audio CD)
A long time fan of Leonard Cohen, this album did not really work for me when I first bought it. I enjoyed it and added it to my collection but I didn't want to play it all the time. This January, I started playing it again and I just can't take it off the player. Everytime I decide it's time for a change, I find myself singing along and it stays on and it is now February. If you have not heard it, try it, it will grow on you big time.
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