Album Review: Leonard Cohen - Thanks For The Dance

You Want It Darker came out a month before we lost this great songwriter. It was presumedly Leonard Cohen's last release, but here we are, three years later with a new collection of songs from those last sessions, completed by his son Adam and with guest appearances from the likes of Beck, Bryce Dessner, Richard Reed Parry, Damien Rice and Leslie Feist.

Amid the numerous guests, Cohen's voice rightfully stands front and centre in the mix, the music playing a gentle and beautifully sensitive supporting role. Lyrically it sees Cohen vibrant and poetic, at the top of his game as he delivers lines with a cheeky twinkle in the eye, a knowing glance to the past and the deep romanticism that permeates all his work. 

Lyrics ebb and flow, weaving stories of weariness and nostalgia with lines like “Behind her fine embroidery her nipples rose like bread”, “I was selling holy trinkets, I was dressing kind of sharp, had a pussy in the kitchen and a panther in the yard,” and “I’m living on pills, for which I thank God.” This is the perfect album to follow the weightier farewell note of his previous album. It’s a shot of poetic light and a reminder that Cohen’s art lives on.