Cohen old, wise on ‘You Want It Darker’
Hynde revives Pretenders
LRecords) Leonard Cohen’s late, late career resurgence reaches new heights on “You Want It Darker”, an elegant treatise with deep felt layers of wisdom and a sense of finality.
Produced mostly by son Adam, Cohen’s third studio album in five years puts his most effective musical forms through a filter of restraint. Nothing distracts from the 82-year-old’s haunting lyrics, and his vocals remain both otherworldly and down-to-earth. A physical, naked bass line drives the title song, as Cohen’s woofer-rattling vocals are underpinned by a cantor and the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir, connections to his Montreal youth.
On “Treaty”, later reprised with a string quartet, Cohen may be putting to rest the relationship described on “Hallelujah”, with no room for illusions.
The Mediterranean stylings of “Traveling Light” are like the soundtrack to Cohen’s courtship of the legendary (and recently deceased) Marianne Ihlen on a Greek island in the 1960s. “Leaving the Table” is a country song glowing from the jukebox and Johnny Cash could have recorded “If I Didn’t Have Your Love” with Rick Rubin.
If it’s too early to say goodbye, we can consider “You Want It Darker” as simply his new album, not the end of a trilogy.
No matter which station of life he’s at, Cohen shines on, darkly.
Cohen
By Pablo Gorondi
“You Want It Darker”
(Columbia
“Alone” (BMG) Chrissie Hynde reverts to her Pretenders moniker on “Alone”, a soulful production helmed by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and starring her tough-asnails vulnerability.
Hynde’s wonderful voice, one of rock’s best, can weaken knees even by reading a phone book. While the album sports all kinds of modern-retro sounds, her vocals propel the fast ones and elevate the ballads with her usual empathy and authority.
Opening with the declarative title track, which has a piano riff with shades of Allen Toussaint’s “Fortune Teller”, Hynde immediately clears the room — “I’m at my best, I’m where I belong, alone”. That could bear bad tidings for what is supposed to be the band’s first effort since the dynamic “Break Up the Concrete” in 2008, but she doesn’t sound at all isolated.
Instead she gets feistily involved in fellow Akron, Ohio, native Auerbach’s quirky production, which echoes a long list of rock and R&B idols, from Doug Sahm’s Tex-Mex organ to T. Rex and even Duane “Twangy Guitar” Eddy himself on “Never Be Together”.
“Roadie Man” is another moaning complaint by the long-suffering wife from “Watching the Clothes” and first single “Holy Commotion” has some jungle drums and whirling sounds of steel pans. “Chord Lord” is probably closest to Pretenders from 30-odd years ago, while “I Hate Myself” would suit Lou Reed or a certain controversial Nobel Prize winner.
There may not be towering classics on “Alone”, but it’s a rewarding listen if you accept — and you’ll feel better if you do — that these are not your parents’ Pretenders or even those from a few years ago. But, oh, that Hynde vibrato!
The Wonder Of You:
The Wonder Of You, Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment
“The Wonder of You”, recorded at the Beatles’ old Abbey Road Studios, offers one more chance to enjoy Presley’s voice in a different context, deliciously backed by a world-class orchestra geared toward the nuances of his delivery. It’s a new twist on a very familiar, and treasured, body of work.
This one is a tried and true concept, basically a variation on last year’s quite successful posthumous pairing of Elvis Presley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, but the fact that it’s been done once before doesn’t diminish the pleasure.
There are few surprises, but it’s a reminder of Presley’s range and vocal dexterity. The opening rocker, “A Big Hunk O’ Love”, sounds totally fresh in an orchestral mode. Fans of Elvis’s gospel approach will thrill to his masterful “Amazing Grace”.
The orchestral style suits Elvis well: Taken out of the rock ‘n’ roll context, there is no need for his swagger or his snarl. The orchestra is restrained and understated, allowing Presley’s vocals alone to carry the day, even if they do fall short on “Memories” and a few others.
The orchestral format also gives rise to “live” concerts with Elvis singing on screen while the Royal Philharmonic performs. A series of six British shows in major arenas this fall is expected to draw thousands of the faithful — the number doesn’t seem to be dwindling, even 39 years after his death, in a country where he never performed.
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” soundtrack (Lou Adler’s Ode Sounds & Visuals) Let’s do the time warp again! More than 40 years after one of the great cult films of all time introduced an unsuspecting public to sweet transvestites, a mad scientist making an erotic Frankenstein creature, and a highly repressed yet oversexed Brad and Janet, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is back, this time as a TV remake on Fox.
It still bristles with all the weirdness and genderbending that made the 1975 film a great excuse to party, then dress up in character and go to a midnight showing where you not only watched the show, you threw rice at the screen, sprayed water on fellow theatergoers, and shouted lines back and forth to the actors.
The show launched Tim Curry to stardom as Dr Frank N. Furter, the “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania”. Curry is back — but this time as the narrator.
His signature role this time out is played by Laverne Cox of “Orange Is The New Black”, herself a transgender performer. She approaches the role a (tiny) bit more subdued than did Curry; the sight (or the very idea) of a horny transgender scientist was a lot more jarring 40 years ago then it is now. (AP)