Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen

Columbia

December 27th, 1967.

The poet exists to define experience with words. To boil down essence into unfiltered feelings, you must rip your soul open. One has to feel life for what it is, see life for what it is - the purest of experiences. They say heartbreak lets the light in; it is to the soul what sunlight is to skin. Leonard Cohen struck gold on his debut album. Songs of Leonard Cohen is a diamond in the rough; it's a work which you can tell was on the mind long before it's eventual creation.

Words have the ability to cut through - they get under the skin and above the noise when spoken with purpose. Abstract thoughts use words as a means to free them from the chains of obscurity - the meaning not quite clear, but far from arbitrary or expendable. A perplexing approach to songwriting is adopted by Leonard Cohen - though not one of an overly complex nature. His words manage to mean so much more by being his, and his alone. The acoustic backdrops that set the scene accentuate the stone-cold aesthetic to be found within - the lightest of additional touches in percussion and sprinkles of instrumentation do wonders in expediting the process of osmosis-like understanding; the words cut like razors, they slice deep.

Nightlight recluse's worldwide can sink their teeth into the ambiguous nature of this album and find solace somewhere along its path. Words which take on multiple meanings - sometimes resulting in no meaning at all, other than interpretation - tend to become animals of their own accord. Wrapping them up into mere 'love songs' doesn't do them much justice; they exist within, and without.

A frigid guitar, wintry words, and a cold room. One cup. A fork and spoon. A chair - with it, a desk. Ink and it's chosen vessel. A point of contact to capture the manifestation of words. And the heartbreak to heal a thousand lost souls. Bearing the burden of existence is a task which very few can endure - it's a murderous marathon if there ever was one. Running the race with companions in the shape of 8 to 16 bar bursts makes it that much more manageable - and to some extent, worthwhile.