Leonard Cohen 1971 Songs of Love and Hate

Artist....: Leonard Cohen
Title.....: Song of love and Hate
Rel. Date.: 1971
Type/Genre: Folk
Size......: 61mb
Format....: mp3
Bitrate...: 192

1. Avalanche (album version) 5:01
2. Last Year's Man (album Version) 6:00
3. Dress Rehearsal Rag (Album Verson) 6:06
4. Diamonds In The Mine (album version) 3:50
5. Love Calls You By Your Name (album version) 5:40
6. Famous Blue Raincoat (Album Version) 5:10
7. Sing Another Song, Boys (album version) 6:14
8. Joan Of Arc (album version)

The title of Leonard Cohen's third album is a pretty accurate description of the music found therein. These songs deal with human relationships at their most polarized and extreme, gushing with emotion and boiling over with intensity. The twist is, there are no love songs here, or hate songs either. For on Songs of Love and Hate, the two titular emotions are so tightly intertwined that they haunt each song with equal force, each one feeding the other, forming a musical cycle that explores human relationships at their most intense and unsparing. It's an album full of bitterness and longing, full of unforgiving regrets and ungranted wishes. Cohen's musical constructions are brilliant, a collection of quiet acoustic compositions that are laced with tension and raw emotion. Combined with the sharp, flat, take-it-or-leave-it sneer of Cohen's voice and some brilliantly understated instrumentation, and you've got yourself an emotionally ravaged masterpiece. Highlights include "Avalanche," which combines a bitter, defiant, and subtly self-deprecating lyric with a rush of dark, flamenco-tinged guitars. There's also the cynically rocking "Diamonds In The Mine," and the moody, quietly beautiful family tragedy of "Famous Blue Raincoat," as well as "Last Year's Man," an apocalyptic masterpiece that combines a haunting melody with lyrical imagery both nightmarish and Biblical. My personal favorite song here is "Dress Rehearsal Rag," a harrowing epic whose lyrics depict a washed-up playboy's contemplation of suicide. The sense of desperation and self-loathing shine through with crystal clarity here, while the music slowly builds in intensity, culminating in a final verse that simply explodes with cathartic anguish. Make no mistake about it, this is a dark, bitter classic.