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Rating: I admit I felt a bit puzzled at first listen. I was expecting a collection of great songs in the vein of Ten New Songs, but instead, I find myself holding an album that is more a mosaic of experimentation, notes, tributes, quotes, symbols, memories, and dedications than a collection of songs.
Poetry has always been the fundamental component of Cohen's entire discography, which he has always known how to blend well with his compositions and ballads. However, I believe that in this latest work Cohen has delved even deeper.
In fact, this perfect mix of poetry and music is frequently dissolved, as if Cohen is retracing his own compositional process. In this sense, "Villanelle For Our Time" is quite enlightening; it is surely a great composition born of musical experimentation, revealing the great musician's skills of the Canadian poet.
Experimentation is an essential element to understand this work, which is actually much more complex than what a casual listen might suggest, but it is certainly not the only one!
Cohen indeed delights us with old-fashioned songs like the wonderful "Nightingale" and "The Faith," where he returns to the most traditional and pure form of music, namely folk.
Dear Heather is a formidable album that gradually transfigures, becoming more and more indispensable, and the songs that ran along that line separating the ridiculous from the sublime take flight and venture into that same darkness, deeper than the suffering gripping the heart of the protagonist of "Tennessee Waltz," the classic country song by Pee Wee King with which Cohen wanted to symbolically close this album, while we are left with no choice but to surrender once more to the masterpiece.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Go No More A-Roving (03:47)
[Dedicated to Irving Layton]
So we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul outwears the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.
03 The Letters (04:52)
Words and music by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson
You never liked to get
The letters that I sent.
But now you've got the gist
Of what my letters meant.
You're reading them again,
The ones you didn't burn.
You press them to your lips,
My pages of concern.
I said there'd been a flood.
I said there's nothing left.
I hoped that you would come.
I gave you my address.
Your story was so long,
The plot was so intense,
It took you years to cross
The lines of self-defense.
The wounded forms appear:
The loss, the full extent;
And simple kindness here,
The solitude of strength.
You walk into my room.
You stand there at my desk,
Begin your letter to
The one who's coming next.
05 Morning Glory (03:36)
No words this time? No words. No, there are times when nothing can be done. Not this time. Is it censorship? Is it censorship? No, it's evaporation. No, it's evaporation. Is this leading somewhere? Yes. We're going down the lane. Is this going somewhere? Into the garden. Into the backyard. We're walking down the driveway. Are we moving towards.... We're in the backyard. ...some transcendental moment? It's almost light. That's right. That's it. Are we moving towards some transcendental moment? That's right. That's it. Do you think you'll be able to pull it off? Yes. Do you think you can pull it off? Yes, it might happen. I'm all ears. I'm all ears. Oh the morning glory!
09 Dear Heather (03:47)
Words and music by Leonard Cohen
Dear Heather
Please walk by me again
With a drink in your hand
And your legs all white
From the winter
10 Nightingale (02:34)
[Dedicated to Carl Anderson (1945-2004)]
I built my house beside the wood
So I could hear you singing
And it was sweet and it was good
And love was all beginning
Fare thee well my nightingale
'Twas long ago I found you
Now all your songs of beauty fail
The forest closes 'round you
The sun goes down behind a veil
'Tis now that you would call me
So rest in peace my nightingale
Beneath your branch of holly
Fare thee well my nightingale
I lived but to be near you
Tho' you are singing somewhere still
I can no longer hear you
12 The Faith (04:24)
(Based on a Québecois folk song)
Words and music by Leonard Cohen
The sea so deep and blind
The sun, the wild regret
The club, the wheel, the mind,
O love, aren't you tired yet?
The club, the wheel, the mind
O love, aren't you tired yet?
The blood, the soil, the faith
These words you can't forget
Your vow, your holy place
O love, aren't you tired yet?
The blood, the soil, the faith
O love, aren't you tired yet?
A cross on every hill
A star, a minaret
So many graves to fill
O love, aren't you tired yet?
So many graves to fill
O love, aren't you tired yet?
The sea so deep and blind
Where still the sun must set
And time itself unwind
O love, aren't you tired yet?
And time itself unwind
O love, aren't you tired yet?
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Other reviews
By Lesto BANG
Dear Heather (2004) is now the terminus and the Swan Song itself and it is the very Essence of becoming light, a descending and sublime parable.
The great divine sleepiness ecstatic and transcendental ... brings us back to unconscious worlds filled with tired universes now emptied of any meaning.
