Songs Of Love and Hate
1971, Columbia Studio A (Nashville TN) & Trident Studios (London), Columbia Records

1. Avalanche
2. Last Year's Man
3. Dress Rehearsal Rag
4. Diamonds In the Mine
5. Love Calls You by Your Name
6. Famous Blue Raincoat
7. Sing Another Song, Boys
8. Joan of Arc

Having developed something of a cult following in the US and UK with his first two albums, seeing as both had penetrated the top 10 albums chart in the latter and sold moderately in the former yet not produced any real number of hit singles, Cohen took to the road for a year, writing a handful of new songs in the process before the time to take to the studio came again. Both his albums beforehand, at least under the umbrella of folk music, were albums of extremes - while Songs Of Leonard Cohen represented the more atmospheric side of folk rock (and very well too), Songs From a Room (in the main) had a much more lo-fi and gritty, sedated kind of feel. Seeing as Cohen has, 99% of the time, used music as more of a vehicle for his poetic talents, the next logical move was to combine the two and see how successful both sets of songwriting and production ethics were when done at the same time.

Fittingly as the song that kicks proceedings off, Avalanche represents this kind of combination of sounds superbly, as over the top of a superb acoustic guitar motif and gently simmering yet foreboding string arrangement does one of Cohen's finest lyrics a whole world of justice, as he fills in the gaps in the sonic picture with his trademark grainy vocal. To put it simply, it's songs like this which sum up Cohen's strength as a songwriter. It's true to say that he's hardly the best singer the world has ever known, but as he sings of stepping 'into an avalanche, it covered up my soul' and how 'you who wish to conquer pain, you must learn what makes me kind' and 'the crumbs of love that you offer me, they're the crumbs I've left behind', he simply doesn't need to be. The words and the almost ambient musical backing just speaks to you in ways that other kinds of music and many, many other artists simply couldn't. Considering who wrote this lyric, it's quite a compliment to say that it's among the man's finest too.

As I said earlier, the album of a whole takes the strengths of the two albums that came before and executes them both perfectly. Last Year's Man, for instance, sounds a lot like one of the better moments of Songs From a Room, and the same can be said of Joan Of Arc - both of which maintain that pensive, lo-fi folk sound, the kind that lets Cohen's poetry alone speak for the music (although the latter does feature an intriguing use of overlapping vocal tracks). There's the occasional strangely lively song here too, like the superb Diamonds In the Mine which, perhaps even more strangely, makes use of quite a memorable and melodic chorus.

So, we see some more conventional and mainstream song structures creeping into Cohen's repertoire too, like the frankly amazing Famous Blue Raincoat. Like Avalanche before it, it's definitely not only one of my absolute favourites from the album (if not of all time), but it's the perfect representation of what the man's got going for him when it comes to being a songwriter. Quite simply one of the most painfully sad yet beautiful songs of all time.

Overall, the album is simply fantastic. Although Love Call's You By Your Name is probably the sole weakpoint, and maybe a studio version of Sing Another Song, Boys would've kept the album flowing slightly better, in being a combination of the sounds of both his earlier albums, Songs Of Love and Hate here definitely outdo them both. As you'll see while this thread continues, there are several tiers to Cohen's discography in terms of quality, and this is definitely in the top one.

9/10