Not everyone can be a vocal athlete. For singers who strain to get their range to a certain octave, embracing sincerity is the next−best alternative.
Just ask Leonard Cohen. Since his 1967 debut with "Songs of Leonard Cohen," Cohen has established a reputation as one of the world's most insightful singer−songwriters. While his voice can hardly be considered beautiful, it has delivered some of the most compelling lyrics of the last 50 years. His songs unerringly reveal the beauty and the absurdity of human relations; "Bird on the Wire" is as much a pledge of loyalty as it is a confession of past transgressions.
Now at age 76, Cohen is as probing as ever in his music. His new live album, "Songs from the Road," contains recordings of his live tours from 2008 and 2009. Happily, his voice has improved with age.
While Cohen awkwardly skirts the baritone range in his earlier recordings, more than 40 years later, he's hitting the low notes with seductive, raspy zest. Cohen's stage presence jumps right through on the recordings, delivering the lyrics with a conviction absent in the studio versions.
Those looking for reiterations of Cohen's solo acoustic days will not find them on this album. Every Cohen classic, with the exception of "Avalanche," is rearranged with a full, live band. Band members vary between songs; the Spanish guitar of Javier Mas and Dino Soldo's woodwind work provide the most compelling instrumentals on the album. Their solos between Cohen's progressions give the songs a musicality they lacked in their initial versions. Mas's introductory solo to "Lover, Lover, Lover" adds an exotic tinge that invigorates Cohen's performance.
The glossy musical additions don't always benefit the songs, though. Though Cohen's backup singers provide gorgeous accompaniment throughout the album, their contribution at times feels inappropriate. The heavenly harmonies on "Bird on the Wire" come off as more than a little incongruous with the lyrics, "Like a baby, stillborn / Like a beast with his horn / I have torn everyone who reached out for me."
Matching aesthetic to message might have been an easier task for Cohen when he only had to worry about his own guitar accompaniment. With a larger band, he seems to have difficulty complementing the song with its sound.
Regardless of these occasional discrepancies, the song choices on the album are very strong, including Cohen's now−famous version of "Hallelujah" from Coachella 2009. They offer a great balance between Cohen's earlier songs and his more production−heavy work from the '80s to the present. Cohen's entire catalogue is cohesive, and the singer can easily pick and match songs from completely different parts of his career.
The only seriously questionable song choice is the opening track, "Lover, Lover, Lover," in which Cohen's crowd can be heard clapping jovially, but horrifically off rhythm. This cacophonous start is hardly the best way to kick off a live album, especially when the producers could have picked from 20 other live recordings of the song.
"Songs from the Road" concludes with equally soulful renditions of "Hallelujah" and "Closing Time." Unlike some of the earlier songs, both of these versions show the instruments working in perfect equipoise with Cohen's voice.
The bluesy organ passages between verses of "Hallelujah" never infringe on the weight of the lyrics, and in "Closing Time," Cohen sings spiritedly over the country−tinged backup band to the audience's delight. The crowd's obvious enthusiasm is one of the best parts of the album.
One generally doesn't see acoustic folk heroes inspiring the same fevered cries as a stadium rock band, but maybe that's just another part of Cohen's magic.
