Track Listing

1. Avalanche
2. Last Year's Man
3. Dress Rehearsal Rag
4. Diamonds In The Mine
5. Love Calls You By Your Name
6. Famous Blue Raincoat
7. Sing Another Song Boys
8. Joan Of Arc
9. Dress Rehearsal Rag

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2579 in Music
• Released on: 2007-04-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Extra tracks

CD Description
It doesn't get darker than this. Though Leonard Cohen had already established himself as the doyen of doom with his first two albums, his third, SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE, finds him kicking off the 1970s with the sharpest repudiation of the '60s peace-and-love/flower-power ethic the world had yet seenfrom the "sensitive troubadour" corner of the music map. Though it's not really a "concept album," SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE feels like a guided tour through one man's battle-scarredlove life. The utter emotional degradation of "Avalanche," the suicidal frenzy of "Dress Rehearsal Rag," and the bitterregret of "Last Year's Man" all sound like stops on the same ill-fated journey. The arrangements are wisely based around Cohen's world-weary voice and hypnotic acoustic-guitar patterns, with occasional orchestrations rising like dark clouds in the background. Possibly Cohen's finest album, LOVE ANDHATE would stand as a monument to explorers of the musical Dark Side for decades to come--such as Nick Cave, who memorably covered "Avalanche"--and to anyone nursing a bitter, broken heart.

Customer Reviews

Timeless music
Like all Cohen's early albums, Songs Of Love & Hate has grown in stature down the years. Famous Blue Raincoat was beautifully covered by Jennifer Warnes on her album of the same name which also contains a duet with Cohen on a longer version of Joan Of Arc. Sing Another Song Boys is Cohen at his bitter best, its harsh chorus atypical of the image of the subdued folkie but pointing to later songs like Lover Lover Lover on 1974's New Skin For The Old Ceremony.

The fierce and powerful Diamonds In The Mine is in the same vein, where the celestial female vocals are particularly effective in balancing Cohen's raw voice on this tale of stunning imagery. (In retrospect, in tone and delivery these two songs are not too far removed from tracks like Iodine or Paper-Thin Hotel on his much-criticized Phil Spector produced album Death Of A Ladies Man).

Besides those two, the other tracks are typical early Cohen. With astonishing elegance and simplicity, the haunting melodies, poetic lyrics and ragged voice have a way of establishing themselves in the consciousness of the listener. Few other artists touch the strings of the soul in the way that Cohen does. Perhaps Richard Thompson comes close now and again, as do Nick Drake, Lou Reed on Berlin, Nick Cave and definitely Swans and Angels Of Light. Songs Of Love and Hate is another jewel in Cohen's crown of ageless music.

Starkly Beautiful
This was the first Cohen album I listened to. At first I drowned in the dark, poetic, at times stark mood of this album... and I let myself get carried away. The first song 'Avalanche' rolls forward into a cruel love song replete with beautiful imagery and pulsating metaphors. It only gets better with 'Last Years Man': "And the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend..."

The next few songs set a stark, depressing, obtusely painful, yet somehow fragilely beautiful mood. The last 'Joan of Arc' culminates into one of the most fragile, most painful, exquisitely beautiful song. It is Cohen's poetry at its best.

His voice, brought into stark contrast by the female chorus, is deep, harsh, raw, and pulsating with feeling...

More hate than love but magnificent
This is my first Cohen album and it really is magnificent.

Cohen was 36 when it was released and the album has the feeling of an artist who fears his best days may be behind him. This is especially obvious in the lyrics of Last Years Man and Diamonds in the Mine. His voice in almost every song sounds world weary, bitter and angry. It leaves us with one of the best albums I've ever heard.

It takes a number of listens for the beautiful imagery and deep lyrics to lodge themselves in your brain and start to haunt you. Not to mention the beautiful music and arrangements.

It is also a very personal album. It is almost frightening to think that the events described in "Famous Blue Raincoat" actually happened. Cohen certainly sings it like they did.

I find myself unable to tire of listening to this masterpiece. Do yourself a favour and get it.