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Ten New Songs | 
| Artist: Leonard Cohen
Label: Columbia
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.11
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New (19) Used (5) from £2.49
Seller: youwantit-wegotit
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 1536
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 5099750120224
ASIN: B00005NUXS
Release Date: October 8, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | In My Secret Life | | • | A Thousand Kisses Deep | | • | That Don't Make It Junk | | • | Here It Is | | • | Love Itself | | • | By The Rivers Dark | | • | Alexandra Leaving | | • | You Have Loved Enough | | • | Boogie Street | | • | The Land Of Plenty |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
For the nine years prior to the release of ITen New Songs/I the legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen was mostly in a Zen monastery, obsessively rewriting and polishing the oblique, lapidary lyrics for this austere collection. ITen New Songs/I is arguably Sharon Robinson's record as much as Cohen's--she co-wrote all the songs, plays most of the instruments (primarily a synth that seems to have freshly emerged from a chintzy 1984 power ballad) and accompanies Cohen's gloomy croak with her own crooning. This is the most subdued album Cohen's ever made, which is saying something. It's as if he no longer has time for anything in music or performance that could alter the meaning and force of his words. I--Douglas Wolk/I
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
 Songs of Age and Loss October 10, 2001
95 out of 96 found this review helpful
After nine years since Leonard Cohen's last studio album The Future, was Ten New Songs worth the wait? Mostly, yes. There are three songs on the album which seem destined to join other Cohen classics - the pacy opening track In My Secret Life, the rich and haunting A Thousand Kisses Deep and witty, urban-centered Boogie Street in which Cohen seems to be saying goodbye to his years as a zen monk on a mountain outside Los Angeles and coming back into the real world of traffic jams.brAnother highlight is the death-haunted Here It Is, which unexpectedly telescopes romantic love with sickness, drunken falls, bedpans cardboard and piss and the thudding, powerful By the Rivers Dark which celebrates a life torn between the pleasures of Babylon and a nameless destructive force.brCohen's voice is as weatherbeaten and low as you'd expect, and if anything even deeper and lower than on The Future, and is beautifully counterpointed by co-writer Sharon Robinson's delicate choruses and backing. The most exquisitely melancholy song on the whole album is surely Alexandra Leaving. Like so much of Cohen's music this is music for lonely listeners in lonely rooms, or lonely drivers heading across a quiet landscape at dusk. brThough Ten New Songs is synthesizer-based and has many stylistic similarities to The Future the album is significantly different and is much more personal, with no political/social commentary apart from the gestures of the disappointingly weak final track The Land of Plenty. The arrangements are more stripped down than on The Future (not always a good thing - the synthesizer drumbeat is at times oddly amateurish). But the mild blemishes don't spoil the overall effect of the album, which is one of those that grows on you with repeated listening.brCohen's often under-rated sense of humour is much in evidence, notably in the lines I fought against the bottle, / But I had to do it drunk. So too is his lyric genius: the line When hatred with his package comes reverberates with somber meaning. These are songs of age and loss, rueful but life-affirming, with a sense of toughness and endurance.brOn the whole, Ten New Songs is a mellow, haunting album. It's as good as, maybe even better than, The Future, but not quite up to the dazzling standard of I'm Your Man.
Graceful and subdued March 1, 2002
Pieter (Johannesburg)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
The 2001 album Ten New Songs is quite subdued and at first listen all the songs have the same slow gentle sound. But the old magic's still there on classics like In My Secret Life, Love Itself, The Land of Plenty and the elegant Alexandra Leaving.
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br /Cohen covers familiar themes and one even recognizes lines from earlier songs, e.g. "I do what I am told," (That Don't Make It Junk), while the mood of The Land Of Plenty reminds me of Heart With No Companion from the Various Positions album, a devotional with a sentiment of complete resignation and acceptance.
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br /By The Rivers Dark refers to Psalm 137 about remembering Zion and singing a song to the Lord by the rivers of Babylon. The most explicitly spiritual song The Land of Plenty is the highlight of the album and stirring in its melancholy and honesty: "For what's left of our religion/I lift my voice and pray/May the lights in the land of plenty/Shine on the truth some day".
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br /I enjoy Cohen's unusual excursions like Death of a Ladies' Man and the esoteric Recent Songs as much as his classic acoustic style so I have no problem with the synth-pop production. I love Sharon Robinson's vocals as backing and where she duets with him on tracks like Boogie Street and the exquisite Alexandra Leaving.
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br /For more than four decades Cohen has been constructing a magnificent body of work that stands up to serious scrutiny and the passage of time. What a pleasure then, for these ten additional songs of the same sublime artistry as his first offering of the new millennium. The follow-up, 2004's Dear Heather is even better and more varied.
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a long wait but worth it October 14, 2001
john.dalzell2@btinternet.com (Errol,Perthshire,Scotland)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
The great man has returned with more greats---the first three tracks are instantly likeable;A Thousand Kisses deep having tones of The Miracle from The Future album-----the other seven tracks take a bit of listening to;but become stronger and more meaningful with each replay--this is an album for a darkened room,tranquility, and time apart to really listen to lyrics and the voices,and savour the moments.This man always sends those shivers of delight and amazement through me--don't leave it too long til next time Mr.Cohen.
This one grows on you February 11, 2004
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
A long time fan of Leonard Cohen, this album did not really work for me when I first bought it. I enjoyed it and added it to my collection but I didn't want to play it all the time. This January, I started playing it again and I just can't take it off the player. Everytime I decide it's time for a change, I find myself singing along and it stays on and it is now February. If you have not heard it, try it, it will grow on you big time.
Wonderful - A Tour De Force and worth the 9 years wait. May 25, 2005
Geoff Hall (Borehamwood, UK)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
At 67, Leonard Cohen follows the monumental "The Future" with another astonishing release.
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br /As already mentioned by others, this is as much Sharon Robinson's album as Cohen's. If, as some have said, the music sounds like it was played on one of those old Atari or Casio keyboards or a sequencer, then great, because it all works. The instrumental aspects of this album are simple and understated, a case of (a lot) less is definitely (a lot) more.
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br /The vocals show Cohen on as good as form as his voice will ever get. The harmonies of Sharon Robinson add warmth and give the whole a beauty and lustre, so much so that it is a masterpiece.
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br /"The Future" will not be beaten. As an album, it is, in my opinion, Cohen's greatest - and that's saying something when one consider's the brilliance of his previous albums. But on this, "By The Rivers Dark" is the absolute greatest Cohen song I have ever heard. It is a gem - and one of my favourite songs of all-time.
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br /Others which make this another memorable album are "A Thousand Kisses Deep", "Here It Is" and "Boogie Street", but the simplicity of the music and Cohen downbeat lyrics mean that there is something special in all these ten new songs.
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br /A wonderful album - can Cohen do no wrong? I doubt it!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
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