Leonard Cohen - New Skin for the Old Ceremony
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Free Music Notes for New Skin for the Old Ceremony
Free Music Review: Truly amazing work
Hit: 5 Stars
Cohen is able to craft such wonderful songs that are just unreveled by anything else. This man is a true visionary and poet.Free Music Review: Closer to Rock
Hit: 4 Stars
New Skin For The Old Ceremony represents the artist's open break with the early folk simplicity of his classic albums Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Songs From A Room and Songs of Love and Hate (on which a harder sound already surfaced on tracks like Diamonds In The Mine). It harnesses a wider array of instruments including trombones, viola, banjo, percussion, mandolin, woodwinds and trumpet. Emily Bindiger, Erin Dickins & co-producer John Lissauer contribute backing vocals.
This fuller instrumentation with a stronger emphasis on bass and drums, together with a less restrained vocal style, make the sound more varied by taking it closer to the rock tradition. Someone used to the flowing melody lines of the early songs will find e.g. Is This What You Wanted harsh and even dissonant. It is clear that this direction culminated in the Phil Spector-produced Death of a Ladies' Man (1978), a nightmare for the artist but beloved by many.
The previous year's live album, Live Songs, display an even greater intensity and raw power on tracks like Please Don't Pass Me By. The themes are the same but the humor is more overt as in Chelsea Hotel, the moving portrait of Janis Joplin. Although the tunes are less striking on gentle numbers like I Tried to Leave You & There is a War, the insight and poetic quality of the lyrics are always arresting.
His distinct spirituality is much in evidence on tracks like the rocking track Lover Lover Lover, the solemn Take This Longing and the somber Who by Fire, a song inspired by a solemn prayer relating to the concept of the Book of Life with special significance to the High Holy Days Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In a slight tweak, Leonard has modified the chilling finality of the words, shifting the emphasis to the search for the Eternal Divine.
Track number four would become the title of the live album Field Commander Cohen recorded on the 1979 tour and released in 2000. So although not all the songs live up to the legendary compositions on his earlier 1960s work and some sound rough by comparison, New Skin For The Old Ceremony confirms Cohen's unusual gift for arresting metaphor, intriguing symbolism & imagery layered with allusion.
Free Music Review: Pretty Good
Hit: 4 Stars
I have had Cohens first three albums for several years and enjoy them profusely. The small stories he tells range from desolation, sardonic views of the world, to drunken hysteria. The album title shows that a lot of the songs are about love and this is true. This collection is not the strongest prose of Cohens but there are some very poppy and uplifting songs.Free Music Review: Warm and entertaining album
Hit: 4 Stars
As for as Leonard Cohen albums go, this one will most likely not disappoint. The songs seem a bit more put together and produced than his past efforts, but they are pretty creative and entertaining all the same. I'm not very in to Cohen, but I'm sure any Cohen fan that does not yet have this album will be very pleased with it.