"Give me Leonard Cohen afterworld. So I can sigh eternally"
- Kurt Cobain - Pennyroyal Tea (from Nirvana - In Utero - one of the most abrasive and disturbing records I have ever endured)

Perhaps it is the profound shift to winter, maybe it is the loss of daylight. I have been listening to Leonard Cohen almost every day, and what once seemed dreary and moribund now sounds strangely magical. The first time I heard Leonard was on a cassette Best Of compilation from his late 60's - early 70's period and while I found it somewhat pleasant, it struck me as dull. I did not understand all the fawning accolades in the music press (something which has not changed). Fast forward to the early 90's and Leonard has started releasing records again but this time they were not the dry, spectral folk of his earlier years. It was some type of new form, his low voice sounding shot and tired but appropriate for the strange nondescript casio keyboard lounge arrangements playing behind him. It fell under the odd, maudlin realm of Tom Waits, Bertolt Brecht, et al - not something you could listen to all the time, but when the time was appropriate there is nothing better. I listened to his music for a while, bookmarked it in my memory and put it away.
His new record was released Oct 26. I had it for a month already because I am despicable about that sort of thing. It is titled Dear Heather and it is phenomenal, in the way that certain tracks prompt me to play them again when they are finished - fifteen times in a row, out of fascination. Some songs are standard love and loss songs, some are strange hybrid trip-hop inflected poetic spoken-word (sounds pretentious but it is not at all - it works!) A country (!) song, a beautiful female voice countering his gutteral baritone throughout most of the album.
I do not expect anyone to take heed to my recommendation... in fact I discourage it. I implore you to erase this and all previous writings from your memory and forget any impact it has had on your life.
The previous poo post is funnier, I know.