Serenade from beyond the grave
Posthumous recordings can leave you with the unsettling sensation that you’re listening to something you’re not supposed to.
Hence, there was hesitancy in approaching Leonard Cohen’s Thanks For The Dance.
These songs (some merely sketches of songs) come from the same recording sessions as I Want It Darker, although they were omitted from his final, magnificent album. Did he really want us to hear them?
According to his son and collaborator, Adam Cohen, the answer is yes. The younger Cohen says he and his father simply didn’t have time to finish them and, in his father’s honour, he has gently polished these gems without disturbing their essence.
Opener Happens To The Heart is such a complete and clever Cohen creation, it easily stands up with his best work. His voice alone is arresting. You can hear humility, pride, regret, and wisdom in his raw, raspy whisper.
His poetic narrative is vivid and stark right until the end, when he twists the final line, leaving the listener confused, pondering the modern world.
Flamenco guitars decorate loss and letting go in Moving On and also The Night of Santiago, a racier encounter that begins with a classic Cohen scenesetter, ‘‘She said she was a maiden, that wasn’t what I heard. For the sake of conversation, I took her at her word’’.
Some songs, such as The Goal, remain tiny sketches, but there is plenty for fans to feast on and it’s a wonder to be serenaded by Cohen once again, even if it’s from beyond the grave.
Normally Beck makes party records (Odelay, Midnite Vultures), or gentle, understated folk albums such as Sea Change or Morning Light.
On Hyperspace, he combines the two, giving us a terribly sad break-up album, with modern pop trimmings and beats from Pharrell Williams.
The contrast is confusing at times, but Beck’s nimble ability to find a melody from nowhere ultimately wins through. Synths and clicks replace guitars and snares.
This album sounds like a late night, lonely Los Angeles haze. Unexpected, with pockets of pure beauty, songs such as Stratosphere showcase Beck at his best.
And Songs For You is a slick collection of slow jams from Tinashe that’s so good you wonder why she isn’t more successful in the mainstream.
Labelled an ‘‘R’n’B disruptor’’ and constantly compared to other artists, Tinashe has her own thing going on, and she’s great at it. Her killer voice is at its best in hushed tones.
Self-produced in her bedroom studio, this is late night, raunchy, intimate pop that’s imminently danceable.