Track Listing

1. Future
2. Waiting For The Miracle
3. Be For Real
4. Closing Time
5. Anthem
6. Democracy
7. Light As The Breeze
8. Always Has Always Will
9. Tacoma Trailer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9402 in Music
• Released on: 1997-10-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
Leonard Cohen's deeply personal first LPs came out at a time when many of his peers were issuing furious, counterculture-inspired rants; he clearly had little interest in sticking with the pack at the time. So it makes a certain kind of contrary sense that Cohen would put out an offbeat, topical collection two-and-a-half decades later. The Future is an odd duck of an album; it's also brave, funny, and fascinating. "Give me back the Berlin Wall/ Give me Stalin and St. Paul", Cohen petitions sardonically in the title track, adding, "I've seen the future, brother: it is murder". "Can't run no more with the lawless crowd/ While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud", he intones in "Anthem"; in "Democracy", he name- checks Tiananmen Square while surveying the United States ("The cradle of the best and of the worst"). Cohen has only improved with age as a vocalist; here, he sounds like a cross between Mark Knopfler and Barry White. While the polished production takes some getting used to, it's somehow suitable that cooing background vocals and programmed tracks temper these low-boil diatribes. This is, after all, The Future. --Steven Stolder

CD Description
Leonard Cohen's 1992 release, THE FUTURE, is both a cynicalattack on civilisation and a spiritual edification, with the gruff-voiced theme "I've seen the future...it's murder". From the sinister whisper of the opening title track, the mood moves to the redemptive optimism of "Light As A Breeze", and the sardonic political march, "Democracy". There's a highly unlikely cover of Irving Berlin's "Always"; peculiar for an artist known more for his lyrical poetry than for his interpretive skills. But Leonard Cohen's voice translates uniquely to interpreting pop standards, and he gives the song a highly original bluesy read. Another unlikely cut is the closing instrumental, "Tacoma Trailer", featuring fine Synclavier work by Bill Ginn.
THE FUTURE is brimming with the tormented poetry for which Cohen is so well-known. His foghorn voice is close to a murmur on many songs, and he sets the mood (dark and foreboding), as he often does, through the able assistance of his omni-present female back-up singers. With the superb lyrics of songs like "Waiting For The Miracle" and "Closing Time", Leonard Cohen remains rock's preeminent poet.

Customer Reviews

a blend of poetry and music
The magic of Leonard Cohens music I stumbled across at a Friends house. As soon as She had put the CD "The Future" on, i knew it was special, it demanded to be listened to in its own right and not as background music. Cohen serves up a mixture of deeply provoking lyrics shrouded in sheer poetry and liberally sprinkled with incredible his musical skills, the result is an outstanding ablum that has to be heard to be believed. I defy anyone to listen to "Closing time" and not be moved by the incredible lyrics, Cohens skill is unsurpassed and unequalled, You got to hear it to feel it. 10 out of 10, Excellent.

COHEN'S 90s MASTERPIECE
The songs on 1992's The Future fall into two broad categories: The Politico-prophetic (The Future, Democracy, Anthem) & the personal, covering a wide spectrum of emotion from love to disillusionment, that resonate with the first category in certain respects. The concluding instrumental Tacoma Trailer recapitulates and unifies both themes.

The apocalyptic title track contains oblique references to psychological disintegration and overt ones to the unraveling of long-standing alliances and to global wars. The underlying idea is one of bewilderment: "They said repent" but exactly what was meant? The marching beat signals the irony of the title Democracy, a tour de force with a lovely undulating rhythm and gripping lyrics that mention the The Sermon on the Mount. Jennifer Warnes is amongst the backing vocalists; this song has been covered by Judy Collins on her tribute album of the same name.

The solemn Anthem with its graceful rhythmic motion and choral vocals contains the comforting lines: "There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in," a concept which is extensively examined in the Zohar and Kabbalistic literature in general. The following words have the ring of prophecy: "I can run no more with that lawless crowd/while the killers in high places/say their prayers out loud". Chilling. The Future and Anthem are covered on the soundtrack tribute Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.

Co-written with Sharon Robinson, Waiting for the Miracle is an understated, slow song with backing vocals by Anjani Thomas whilst Steve Lindsay produced & arranged the soulful cover of Frederick Knight's Be For Real with its lovely organ touches. From soul to country, the uptempo Closing Time, an irreverent blend of humor and religious imagery has a catchy tune, buoyant beat & impressive vocal arrangements for the voices of Perla Batalla & Julie Christensen.

Jennifer Warnes arranged and performed backing vocals on Light As The Breeze which must rate as one of Cohen's most sublime love songs, superbly integrating spiritual and romantic imagery. Billy Joel does a surprisingly sensitive rendition on the tribute album Tower of Song. The penultimate track Always is in the R&B tradition with soulful, even funky female vocals & snatches of conversation in the background.

The album closes with the atmospheric Tacoma Trailer, an instrumental where bass and synclavier recreate the interaction of Cohen's and the female vocals, creating a forlorn landscape of loss and melancholia to devastating effect. As Cohen's sole album of new material in the 1990s, The Future was a worthy follow-up to 1988's I'm Your Man, continues some of the themes on 1984's Various Positions and remains a masterpiece of poetry in song.

Everybody knows the The Futures Closing time
i'm only 14 and i stumbled on leonard cohen about a year ago and i was totally drawn in by it i surprised myself because the typical sort of teenager would be totally ignorant to this sort of music but it's amazing and hypnotic espesially 'Everybody Knows' and the 'The Future'(which are my favourite on the album)

Anyway what most atracts me about this music is his gravely manly voice and lyrics which are never but in the backround and overshadowed by guitar riffs.Cohen uses a lot of synthesizers and usually has female backsingers which both sound great, and complement his distictive voice.

This Album and and in fact all of Leonard Cohens music deserves a listening to because it so unique, and i'm sure you'll be hooked on it after one song.