1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 210. Leonard Cohen – Songs of Love And Hate (1971)

 

The album starts as business as usual for Cohen, even using pretty much the same kind of rapid guitar arpeggios that he’s done on the previous two albums on this list. His voice is a bit deeper than before, there are some strings and the occasional children’s choir added in, but otherwise it didn’t feel like any new ground was being broken. 

And then we get to the track Diamonds In The Mine, which is a kind of country song in which Cohen gives a most extraordinary vocal performance, kind of screaming/shouting out the words, unlike anything else he’s done before (or perhaps since?) I don’t know if I’d say it’s a *good* song as such, but it was different. He goes for it a bit on the live track Sing Another Song Boys, although not as extreme. 

There are some typically Cohen tracks that are pretty good – Last Years Man, and the lengthy sombre Joan of Arc, a delicate waltz about the last moments of Joan of Arc’s life (“fire, make your body cold, I’m going to give you mine to hold”). Did we need another Leonard Cohen album? This felt like the inclusion of some of the middling Byrds albums in that I didn’t feel like I was hearing anything I hadn’t heard before, probably more for those who appreciate Cohen more than I do.