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Various Positions
 
 
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Various Positions

~ Leonard Cohen
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
Price: £3.37 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
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Various Positions + I'm Your Man + Songs of Love and Hate
Price For All Three: £11.33

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  • I'm Your Man ~ Leonard Cohen

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Product details

  • Audio CD (1 Nov 1989)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Sony
  • ASIN: B000025K9Y
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 277 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in these categories:

    #5 in  Music > World & Folk > American Folk
    #7 in  Music > Rock > Classic Rock > Folk Rock
    #8 in  Music > Bargain CDs > Budget

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Extraits
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Dance Me To The End Of Love 4:38£0.69
Listen  2. Coming Back To You 3:32£0.69
Listen  3. The Law 4:26£0.69
Listen  4. Night Comes On 4:39£0.69
Listen  5. Hallelujah 4:36£0.69
Listen  6. The Captain 4:06£0.69
Listen  7. Hunter's Lullaby 2:24£0.69
Listen  8. Heart With No Companion 3:03£0.69
Listen  9. If It Be Your Will 3:43£0.69

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Various Positions was Leonard Cohen's first album of the 1980s, yet was in keeping with the rest of his albums in two important respects: one, it sounded absolutely nothing like anything else anyone else was doing; two, it was a compelling reason for anyone else dealing in songs of love and its loss to wonder why they were bothering. As a lyricist, Cohen has few, if any, peers--he has never been the relentless doom-monger of popular myth, but a wise, warm and frequently very funny chronicler of heartbreak. Cohen, like very few others, has always appreciated that love is at least as much comedy as tragedy. Various Positions contains some of Cohen's best--"Dance Me To The End Of Love", "Coming Back To You" and a shortened, accusatory version of "Hallelujah", later covered to such majestic effect by Jeff Buckley. It also contains the bizarre country epic "The Captain", in which Cohen plays the part of a young officer being handed command of his unit by his dying superior. All are sung in Cohen's trademark husky drone and all are the work of a writer who, here as always, uses language like Vincent used paint. --Andrew Mueller

CD Description
VARIOUS POSITIONS proved to be a transitional album for Cohen, poised halfway between the classic balladic style of RECENT SONGS and the cool electronic backing of I'M YOUR MAN. It was certainly Cohen's slickest production to date, though it seems practically spartan compared to later recordings. The slinky, European feel of the minor-key romantic plea "Dance Me to the End of Love" is Cohen at his most sensual and persuasive. "The Captain"'s shifting perspective navigates a conversation between two characters musing on the personal cost of war. Most significantly, new vistas in Cohen's work are opened up by "Hallelujah" (a highlight of Jeff Buckley's debut album nearly a decade later) and "If It Be Your Will".These two songs present themselves as musical prayers, and their fragile spirituality is a refreshing, largely unprecedented development in Cohen's dark artistic legacy.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Embrace and hold us tight, all your children dressed in rags of light', 15 Mar 2002
By Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This 1984 album, the last of Cohen's folk masterpieces and one subtly spiced with country, never grows stale due to the intricacy of its arrangements - vocal & instrumental - while perennially revealing deeper layers of metaphysical & symbolic significance. Or as one ages one understands better! Particularly sublime is the interaction of male & female vocals calibrated to bring out the best in both. The devotion and the vocals of Anjani Thomas and Jennifer Warnes make a major contribution to the music's enduring beauty.

Cohen's gift of melody & rhythm finds buoyant expression in Dance Me to the End Of Love which may sound catchy and even frisky like a simple pop tune but if one pays attention multiple meanings & possibilities emerge. In contrast, Coming Back to You unfolds slowly and solemnly through a graceful melody wed to imagery that navigates delicately between romantic & divine love. The two tracks The Law and The Night Comes On evoke something of John Berryman's poetic sensibility ... The Moon and the Night and the Men, The Song of the Tortured Girl and above all, Sonnet number 34.

The Night Comes On may be the absolute highlight of this album, a rare gem ranking amongst the greatest of Cohen's songs. Like assembling a pearl necklace, it strings striking images of the domestic & personal, the universal, the spiritual, historical and prophetic on a thread of longing. As the song unfolds, the symbolism unleashes an almost supernatural power that stirs the psyche hinting at or conjuring vague specters of ancient memories. There are close correspondences in the song Anthem on The Future.

Being familiar with John Cale's soaring version of Hallelujah on the tribute album I'm Your Fan and Jeff Buckley's on Grace, Cohen's own sounds somewhat monotone and subdued, still beautiful but constrained within a narrow range compared to the aforementioned. The tale of David & Batsheba that started with desire, led to murder & a string of tragedies but was ultimately transformed into the redemptive, relies in the songwriter's version on the atmosphere created by the female vocals rather than his voice.

The words of the rhythmic lilting song The Captain with its tinkling piano, tangy country flavor & ironic comment on "some country-western song" contain & conceal more than they reveal as they undulate on the tune & the beat. Then the tempo drops for the cold & alienating Hunter's Lullaby that in arrangement (not mood) resembles the 1979 album Recent Songs. The message is baffling but may refer to the subconscious impulses that isolate & lead us astray. There is a sense of menace & desolation without the redemptive introspection of The Beast In Me by Nick Lowe on his album The Impossible Bird.

Cohen's mysticism, masked or open, infuses every song. It manifests most painfully in Hunter's Lullaby & most inspiringly in The Law, The Night Comes On & The Captain while in Heart With No Companion it shines like a thousand suns. The healing power can go everywhere and reach anyone, only & exactly because it has been shattered. It recalls the crack in everything that allows the light in on the aforementioned Anthem, a reference to the shattering of the vessels as explained in the Arizal's The Tree of Life: Introduction to the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria as preserved by Rabbi Vital, and less clearly in the Zohar.

The impassioned Heart With No Companion combines a lilting uptempo beat & hypnotic tune with lyrics contemplating disillusionment, shattered dreams & immobilizing fear exacerbated by a terrifying prophecy: "Through the days of shame that are coming/through the nights of wild distress". These negatives are all erased, however, by the lines: "Now I greet you from the other side/Of sorrow and despair/With a love so vast and shattered/It will reach you everywhere". The defiance expressed by: "Though your promise count for nothing/You must keep it none the less" is in fact the antidote to nihilism, affirming the primacy of spirit and of the word. Land Of Plenty on Ten New Songs covers some of the same territory: "For the Christ who has not risen/From the caverns of the heart/For what's left of our religion/I lift my voice and pray/May the lights in the land of plenty/Shine on the truth some day".

If Hunter's Lullaby seemingly submits to despair whilst Heart With No Companion directly defies it, the final song is a prayer of intercession on an ancient pattern, the same to which The Lord's Prayer conforms. With praise and reverence, If It Be Your Will intercedes not only for the tormented souls in hell but for all the children in their "rags of light," the remnants of the shattered vessels. As a sung prayer it is as moving as Calling My Children Home performed by Emmylou Harris on Spyboy although it is serene where Emmylou's song yearns with burning heartache. The one represents Rachel weeping for her children whilst the other calms the tempest with trust in the Eternal Divine, knowing that Spirit in mercy overrules The Law (of cause & effect).

Revisiting Anjani and Jennifer, I highly recommend the first's inspiring album The Sacred Names on which she sings in Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Aramaic, Portuguese & English, and the second's sensitive interpretations of Cohen compositions on her Famous Blue Raincoat, the Twentieth Anniversary edition that has been enhanced by four extra tracks: The Night Comes On, Ballad of the Runaway Horse, If It Be Your Will & Joan of Arc live in Antwerp where the Novecento Orchestra, West Brabants Operakoor & De Tweede Adem support Jenny & her band, adding depth to Cohen's elegy to the Maid of Orleans.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Leonard Cohen at his best, 8 Feb 2005
By Keith Joseph (West Berkshire, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
This is one of my favourite Cohen CDs, as it has no tracks I tend to skip past. As usual it is Cohen's strong lyrics (more poetry really) and the quality of his voice that holds the simple backing tunes together. Being exposed to country music as a child by my father I particularly like, well love actually, 'The Captain' (he even gently mocks the format in the lyrics) but there other strong songs in there as well you may prefer, like 'The Law' or 'The night comes in' or 'Hallelujah' [yes, the fantastic song from Shrek written by LC & sung by Neil Diamond]. However I do find the superb track 'The night comes in' rather sad and uncomfortable listening [even more than 'The story of Isaac' on Songs from a room] - although music that's powerful enough to move you certainly can't be considered a bad thing. Cohen's words are often interestingly cryptic, moving and deeply reflective, rather than being outrightly political or 'protest'. If you are new to Leonard Cohen I'd also get the later 'I'm your man', plus perhaps 'The Future' and 'Songs from a room'. The recording quality of all these re-released Cohen CD's is very good, and this one is no exception. They are also great value when offered for under a fiver.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Cohen encapsulates the diversity of the Canadian experience, 7 Jul 2001
By A Customer
I first discovered Leonard Cohen many years ago at the tender age of 16. Melancholy, complex, his music captivated, yet puzzled me. What relevance did his lyrics have for one stuck out on the Canadian prairie?

Revisiting his works as a more mature listener, I am struck by the intricacy of his themes: the exploration of the catholic-jewish-anglo-french-canadian ethos of the 60's-70's-and-80's that somehow transcends all to become the epitome of the cosmopolitan experience of every-person.

In Various Positions, Cohen begins to sacrifice his characteristic rough diamond quality for the more polished sound of his later works. Still, "If it be your will" is a classic exploration of male submission, while "Hunter's Lullaby" has that hypnotic dirge-like quality that one has to love if one loves Cohen. My favourite is "Hallelujah" - is this Cohen in jubilant mode?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding
This CD is a beautifully compiled and poetically arranged masterpiece that brings vividly colorful scenarios to the imagination.
Published 15 days ago by Mr. Graham Farmery

1.0 out of 5 stars the road downhill starts here
first of all i am, or at least was, a big fan of this mans music. but something strange happened to L.C in the 5 years between 'recent songs' and this album. Read more
Published 27 days ago by the lone voice of reason

5.0 out of 5 stars Various Positions
I recommend fans re visiting this album, its one of Leonard Cohens finest.

The tracks 'Dance Me to the End of Love' & 'Hallelugah' are well know & well loved but... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Rosyclaire

5.0 out of 5 stars A gut ripping master piece
Belide by a sense of the mundane, this ablbum expresses all the base components of love, for the yonung one experiences a sense of a mans love, yet so complex even attached one... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. B. Dewhurst

5.0 out of 5 stars Personally I can't stand him but......
Like I say, I can't stand Mr C however my partner thinks that when the gentleman bends over we really all should need to put on our shades! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Dale A. Haines

5.0 out of 5 stars Leonard-EXCELLENT
What can be said of Leonard the Cohen for his fans-other than excellent- and the track Hallelujah was used by so many this year. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr B BERRY

4.0 out of 5 stars HALLELUJAH LAUGHING LENNYS LAST LAUGH
For those who don't know there are three versions of "Hallelujah"in the uk top forty,an awful soulless version at number one. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Finbar the looney

5.0 out of 5 stars TIMELESS
A great CD and well worth the 4 pounds I spent on it, after seeking high and low in every store here in Germany for it. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Lou Almighty

5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Side Of Sorrow And Despair
Cohen made three classic albums with John Lissaeur at the helm: 1974's New Skin For The Old Ceremony, 1979's Recent Songs, but at the apex of these achievements stands 1984's... Read more
Published 22 months ago by pikeyboy

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