© 2024 Public Radio Tulsa
800 South Tucker Drive
Tulsa, OK 74104
(918) 631-2577

A listener-supported service of The University of Tulsa
classical 88.7 | public radio 89.5
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Leonard Cohen's 'Old Ideas' Inspire Confidence

Leonard Cohen.
Courtesy of the artist
Leonard Cohen.

At this point in his life, Leonard Cohen sings with a voice so deep and bottomless, he may as well be singing from underneath the earth. But that doesn't mean it's faint, or murky, or dead. Cohen's cracked baritone enunciates meticulous lyrics that sound searching, restless and jaunty. This has long been Cohen's saving grace: His dry humor juices up his more portentous pronouncements.

I said something about "saving grace" before, and on Old Ideas, the spiritual meaning of that phrase resonates frequently. Cohen spends time here asking forgiveness of old lovers and of God, careful to make it unclear which is more important to him. Cohen asks a woman, "I know you have to hate me, but could you hate me less?" as female voices rise up, as if in support of the old man's position. Perhaps he hired them, one is left to imagine, to provide support for his wooing of the woman he's imploring. "Have mercy on me, baby," he concludes. The instrumentation and genres on Old Ideas vary: Some songs are smooth pop ballads that slide along keyboard riffs, while others are folkier, with prominent acoustic guitar. A good example of Cohen's kind of folk music is "Crazy to Love You."

The killer couplet on that track is, "Crazy has places to hide in / that are deeper than any goodbye." That Cohen is as much in touch with his craziness and his carnal urges as he is with his always-perilous spiritual state gives Old Ideas its pleasing, sometimes poignant tension.

"Come Healing" talks about a healing of the spirit and the body, perhaps in preparation for a darkness that becomes clear in another song about death titled "Darkness." But there's not a trace of morbidity or self-pity or regret on one second of this entire album. Leonard Cohen is making music vital to his spirit, confident that a song transmits its essential nature directly to any listener receptive to his message. In this sense, Old Ideas is an inspirational album from a very lively old coot.

Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

Ken Tucker
Ken Tucker reviews rock, country, hip-hop and pop music for Fresh Air. He is a cultural critic who has been the editor-at-large at Entertainment Weekly, and a film critic for New York Magazine. His work has won two National Magazine Awards and two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards. He has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and other publications.