About Songs of Love and Hate

Grandioses Cover: Fett steht der Titel, der Künstlername. Dieser zeigt sich in einem rausgeschnittenen Foto im unteren rechten Rand - grinsend, ja, gelöst und glücklich. So werden Heerscharen an unwissenden Hörern in die Irre geführt. Holla! sag ich da und meine es. Holla! auch zur Platte. Bevor wir nun an dieser Stelle loslegen, um die Lieder über Liebe und Haß zu skelettieren, gebe ich eine dringende Verkehrswarnung aus: Diese berüchtigte dritte Cohen-Platte höre man nie (nie!!!) allein, noch um drei Uhr morgens. Nie. Oder? Vielleicht gerade unter diesen Umständen, denn  in jenen Momenten trifft sie ins Herz. Doch!? Wie geht man mit dieser Scheibe überhaupt um? Wie begegnet man ihr? Es beginnt so gravierend. Die bekannte Cohen'sche Gitarrenarchitektur, am Horizont ziehen sich die Streicher wie drohendes Gewitter zusammen und erscheint wie mit einer Lawine des Ungemachs, des Schreckens! "avalanche" heißt das Wehklagen des Marterers. Furcht, die sich mit einer verrucht schmeckenden Anziehungskraft durchmischt. Dionysisch oder panisch? Dem Hörer werden eine Unzahl weiterer Gefühlsregungen abgerungen, bevor sich der Reigen endlich schließen wird. Mich ergreift die taumelnde Beobachtung eines fatalistisch-erotischen Liebesreigens

Songs of Love and Hate - Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen has made some beautiful albums — this, Songs of Leonard Cohen, and Ten New Songs my three favourites. There's some extremely melancholy guitar work, but one thing I don't like is there's only eight tracks, eight fantastic tracks, maybe. But, maybe twenty or thirty, would be better. I mean, The Magnetic Fields managed 69. Leonard Cohen has made his most beautiful album to date, not his best, but his most beautiful, even though, Leonard has not made a single album which was not beautiful, but not all of them have been good, just they have all been beautiful.

"Avalanche" has harsh, fast, jarring guitar, and melancholy vocals. "Last Year's Man" is amazing, also melancholy, in fact, all of these tracks are melancholy, goddammit. All of them are beautiful as well. I don't need to say that with every track: beautiful and melancholy. Anyway, "Last Year's Man" has some backing vocals. I point that out, because I don't usually like Leonard's backing singers. There made great use of here, though. "Dress Rehearsal Rag" has some witty, Bob Dylan-esque lyrics. Dylan and Cohen are very wise. In fact, I'm surprised they never met.

Well, "Diamonds in the Mine" isn't that melancholy. It's got a melancholy theme. Except, it's also a kind of silly theme. In fact, it's almost humorous! I don't like that in a Leonard Cohen song, but it is used well. I'm going to admit something here. The vocals are pretty mediocre, but the rest of the song makes up for it. Ah, good, a return to melancholy: "Love Calls You by Your Name". It's a really fantastic song. It's got some more great guitar. I mean listen to him: "Like a gun you will not learn to aim". That's one of the best lyrics ever. The title lyric