On the Level (2016) – Leonard Cohen

Cohen’s voice is front and centre on his 14th and final album You Want It Darker released on October 21, 2016, 17 days before his passing. Musically, the album is “a little bit more sparse and acoustic” compared to his other albums. On the Level is a collected and sedate track about forgiving oneself despite the feeling of regret. Like anyone of his age, Cohen counts the losses as a matter of routine. Moving on has it’s costs and opportunity costs. Leaving you to lose and win. Settling sometimes let’s us move on and simply survive – however it’s never the same going forward.

The New Yorker article states below: Cohen’s songs are death-haunted, but then they have been since his earliest verses. But, despite his diminished health, Cohen remains as clear-minded and hardworking as ever, soldierly in his habits. He gets up well before dawn and writes. In the small, spare living room where we sat, there were a couple of acoustic guitars leaning against the wall, a keyboard synthesizer, two laptops, a sophisticated microphone for voice recording. 

Due to fractures of the spine, You Want It Darker was recorded in the living room of Leonard Cohen’s home in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles and then sent by e-mail to his musical collaborators. His son, Adam Cohen recalled that “occasionally, in bouts of joy, he would even, through his pain, stand up in front of the speakers, and we’d repeat a song over and over like teenagers“.

[Verse 1]
I knew that it was wrong
I didn’t have a doubt
I was dying to get back home
And you were starting out
I said I best be moving on
You said we have all day
You smiled at me like I was young
It took my breath away

[Pre-Chorus]
Your crazy fragrance all around
Your secrets all in view
My lost, my lost was saying found
My don’t was saying do

[Chorus]
Let’s keep it on the level
When I walked away from you
I turned my back on the devil
Turned my back on the angel, too

In Canada, You Want It Darker debuted atop the album charts, with 19,400 in traditional sales. The album occupied the top position for three consecutive weeks and sold 106,000 units by the end of the year in Canada. In the United States, You Want It Darker debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 with 25,000 units, 24,000 of which were pure album sales. It is Cohen’s second American top 10 album.

“In a certain sense, this particular predicament is filled with many fewer distractions than other times in my life and actually enables me to work with a little more concentration and continuity than when I had duties of making a living, being a husband, being a father,” he said. “Those distractions are radically diminished at this point. The only thing that mitigates against full production is just the condition of my body.

For some odd reason,” he went on, “I have all my marbles, so far. I have many resources, some cultivated on a personal level, but circumstantial, too: my daughter and her children live downstairs, and my son lives two blocks down the street. So I am extremely blessed. I have an assistant who is devoted and skillful. I have a friend like Bob and another friend or two who make my life very rich. So in a certain sense I’ve never had it better. . . . At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It’s a cliché, but it’s underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable.”

References:
1. You Want It Darker – Wikipedia
2. Leonard Cohen Makes It Darker – The New Yorker

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand