Five things to know about Thanks for the Dance, by Leonard Cohen
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2019 19:21:27 +0000
Leonard Cohen | Sony Music
You Want it Darker was released three weeks before Leonard Cohen died in November 2016. It seemed that the beloved Quebecois poet had left this mortal coil with a collection of some of the finest material he had penned in his lengthy career.
And Cohen didn’t seem the kind of artist to get the endless industry reissues and repackaging that have some deceased artists with more posthumous releases to their credit than they did living ones.
Thanks for the Dance is a collection of nine tracks left over from the You Want it Darker sessions that were “sketches” left over from that record. Cohen intended the tunes to be on another release, but with the understanding that it would be posthumous. Working with his notes from conversations with his father about how he envisioned the songs sounding, Adam Cohen completed them.
Among the personnel brought in to complete the material was long-standing laúd player Javier Mas, Jew’s harp virtuoso Beck, backing vocalists Jennifer Warnes, Damien Rice and Leslie Feist, and the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir.
Here are five things to know about Thanks for the Dance:
1: The satanic verses. Never one to shy away from religious imagery, quick with a political quip and frequently funny, Cohen is in fine form right from the first verses of the opening track. Happens to the Heart launches with: I was always working steady/But I never called it art/I got my s–t together/Eating Christ and reading Marx. His wordplay is on a whole other level from, well, almost any other musician.
2: Still seducing his audience. Yes, his voice is clearly showing signs of his encroaching illness and he delivers his lines in sometimes gasping meter. But from Moving On to Listen to the Hummingbird, he is still laying on the romance to his female muses and you can’t help but grin a little at just how flirty he remained right up to his last days. Naturally, it’s utterly charming.
3: Thanks for the Dance. In a stark whisper over a Spartan waltz, Cohen notes that we are joined at the spirit/joined at the hip/joined in the panic/of wondering if we’ve come to some sort of agreement? Then he hums along with the angelic chorus of backing vocalists sounding like one of the most satisfied people to every visit the “temple of pleasure.” If You Want it Darker was somewhat defiant, Thanks for the Dance is completely reconciled, right down to the subdued orchestration and mix.
4: Eulogistic pop. Cohen had the ability to make music that reflected moments in life from a realistic viewpoint. He was never scared to act his age and that made his later work so revelatory. On the Goal, Cohen may have hit upon a new genre; pop songs that face death in the face with equal parts fear and ferocity, bristling with honesty. It’s as far from the eternal teenager shtick all these boomer bands seem stuck in as you can get. Declaring I can’t leave my house/Or answer the phone/I’m going down again/But I’m not alone, he’s got a handle on the future.
5: What next? Hopefully, Thanks for the Dance is the last turn around the floor for Cohen recordings. His legacy is such that it speaks for itself and loudest when it’s not marred by a rush of greatest hits or live at … such and such releases. Rather than release those, perhaps some of those great tribute albums such as I’m Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen could get remastered and reissued, and we can all marvel how That Petrol Emotion just owns Stories of the Street. Oh yeah, give the guy a Nobel Prize for Literature too please.
Also out this week:
Jimi Hendrix
Songs for Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts | Experience Hendrix L.L.C. & Legacy Recordings
Remixed by the legendary Eddie Kramer, this five CD set captures the Band of Gypsies in its first four performances at Manhattan’s Fillmore East — two on Dec. 31, 1969, and two on Jan. 1, 1970. Backed by the killer rhythm section of Buddy Miles on drums and occasional lead vocals and bassist Billy Cox, whose association with Hendrix dated to when the two men were serving in the 101st Airborne Division, the legendary guitarist is on fire on the 43 tracks. Such as-yet-unnamed tunes as Hear My Train a Comin’ (here introduced as Lonesome Train) and Experience-era ragers such as Fire swing with the funk-rock flare that this power trio brought to its work. It’s awesome how no version is ever the same, as the man just keeps on pushing his instrumental explorations.
Katherine Penfold
Sweetest Thing | Justin Time
The cover photo of this Canadian singer’s latest could leave you thinking that the music on the recording would be P!nk-ish pop. Instead, the 10 tunes are smooth-grooving, impeccably produced soul funk ranging from the Fender Rhodes-fuelled opener Unapologetic to sweet mid-tempo declarations of disruption such as Movin’ On. A few more bangers such as Tell the World would have been nice. But this is a solid entry into the AC market for the singer and well worth a listen. She is gigging extensively around Vancouver in December, including three sets at Christ Church Cathedral — Dec. 13, 8 p.m., and Dec. 14, 3 and 8 p.m. Tickets and info: facebook.com.
The Kliffs
Temporary Cures | kliffs.ca
Berlin-based Canadian duo Kliffs is comprised of guitarist/keyboardist/singer Marc Bérubé and cellist/keyboardist/vocalist Kristina Koropecki. The music that they make ranges from orchestral singer-songwriter chamber pop that wouldn’t sound out of place on a bill with any number of like-minded Scandinavian acts such as Agnes Obel (Koropecki plays in Obel’s touring group), as well as pulsing ’80s-tinged tunes such as Outside of Cool V2. This single has a bass line that wouldn’t sound out-of-place on a classic Gino Vanelli hit. The band is on tour across Canada from Nov. 29 to Dec. 12, when the tour winds down at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver.
The Modelos
Barrel Fever | Northern Electric
Vancouver’s long-running “rock ‘n’ roll cowboy surfers have been twanging and banging out slinky instrumental jams since 2004. To say that guitarists Joe Rotundo and Mike Kenny have good communication is a gross understatement as the way they trade off licks in the title track is seamless. Backed by the rhythm section of drummer Geoff Hicks (one of the local scene’s most in-demand players) and bassist Brad Ferguson (Hunting), songs such as Hank’s Shuffle dig into Western swing while Monkey Paw just makes you want to hang-10 with the Tijuana Brass. Bonus: The cover is by the one and only Kelly Haigh. Annual Modelos Food Bank Fundraiser, Dec. 7, 8 p.m., Railway Stage and Beer Cafe, 579 Dunsmuir St. Tickets and info: modelos.com