by Wanda Waterman

The Voice, Volume 22 Issue 41 2014-10-17

Album: Popular Problems

Artist: Leonard Cohen

“I saw some people starving
There was murder, there was rape
Their villages were burning
They were trying to escape
I couldn’t meet their glances
I was staring at my shoes
It was acid, it was tragic
It was almost like the blues”
– Leonard Cohen, “Almost Like the Blues”

It’s refreshing to find humour in a Leonard Cohen album right from the clever title, not just because his songs have long been couched in a kind of nihilist twilight but also because, contrary to expectations, the humour actually works—it’s dark, dry, and never awkward or silly. And it does much to lighten the deeply serious subject matter . . . (Read the rest here.)