Leonard Cohen
Greatest Hits

THE REVIEW

Low and deep, the voice is that of an oracular womanizer engaged in a hand-to-hand combat with mystery.

With that tiny thread of anxiety that prevents you from staying calm, as there are books to write, women to love... and the perfect measure to find, something in itself complete, yet at the same time excessive...

Try to focus on what is perfect in itself, a flower, for example, or that cloud that seems to joke, to smile...

Try...

Try to think you can say words that have that immediacy, that sudden truth... yes, I know it's a poetic delirium... but this is the perfect measure...

Finding words that come out well from the mouth and are music even without music...

Oh, please, do a little experiment, try singing, “Sisters of Mercy” and you'll see that even if your voice is not Leonard Cohen's, the words will come out well for you too.

Did you do it? Did you realize?

It's a small thing, but also a kind of miracle, because sometimes poetry is a bothersome lump in the throat and that flow gets stuck.

But in our best songs, it never gets stuck...

What did that French guy say? “Without anything weighing or resting”...yes, exactly. But I want you to know that it's not easy. That the perfect measure is not anesthesia, emotional paralysis, aridity of perfection. But tension in beauty, ripple...

Well, I got to know Cohen with this album that, even though it's an anthology, is one of my favorite albums...

Every track is an absolute masterpiece and the harmony between voice and music is out of this world...

No track by track...

I isolate only two moments, “Bird on the Wire” and “Sisters of Mercy.” I do it for the words. And for that harmony. And for that something that exceeds.

The words:

“Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried, in my way, to be free” (“Bird on the Wire”)

“Well, I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned. When you're not feeling blessed, your own loneliness says that you’ve sinned” (“Sisters of Mercy”)

Well, I won’t explain the why of these words (why these and not others, I mean)... it would stretch things out, and that's not necessary.

I'll just say that by listening to Cohen, each of us finds something to sink our teeth into.

The harmony:

“Bird on the wire” is a kind of definitive chamber blues...

“Sisters of mercy” is an acoustic insistence, accompanied by a million tinkles and reflections, entering the soul's amusement park...

As for "that something that exceeds," I believe I've already said enough...

Aloha...