Leonard Cohen
Dear Heather

Columbia
2004
D-
Reviewed by: Colin Cooper
Reviewed on: 2004-11-08



Posted 11/08/2004 - 10:45:36 AM by JT_Ramsay:
 Thank you. After I heard a snippet on NP fucking R about this, and then saw the Pitchfork review, I thought that America had lost its collective memory of what is Good. Then again, this is probably what Dan Bejar will sound like in 40 years.
 
Posted 11/09/2004 - 08:14:15 AM by perkele:
 There's still hope, as long as someone shoots those backup singers and steals Leonard's Casio.
 
Posted 11/10/2004 - 02:04:03 AM by florenz6:
 Oh, no! I do not agree with this kind of coda on Leonard Cohen´s work. "Dear Heather" is a wonderful piece of music, and,from my point of view, the 4-star-reviews of "Mojo" and "Uncut" were much more revealing.Mr. Cohen was never very experimental, he was always looking for simple forms, waltzes, singalongs etc. His great ability was to find great melodies, and he hasn´t lost it. There are light moments on "Dear Heather", deep and moving ones; there is humour, irony, meditation (without any pretentious kind of thing going on). And, be aware, i´m not from any "Leonard-die-hard-fan-base"!
 
Posted 12/22/2004 - 02:23:56 PM by mroberts:
 Pico Iyer has a long review in the current issue of Tricycle - a Buddhist publication. It's quite good, I suggest tracking it down.
 
Posted 01/08/2005 - 07:57:43 PM by Bender23:
 Amen Colin. I could not agree more with the verdict. I am a huge fan of Cohen's music except for some week years in the 80s (when so many other good and talented artist produced their weakest work). This album just lack the nerve and poetic brilliance evident in his early work.
 
Posted 01/09/2005 - 10:41:51 AM by ColinCooper:
 On second thoughts... This album does have a couple of good songs (if only a couple). "Vilanelle For Our Time" is lyrically one of the best things he's written - and would have been a great parting shot supposing his time should come. But as an album I still think it's an embarrasingly naff effort.