Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia 1967)

This guy should need no introduction. He was already an established artist (poet) by 1967, when he released his first solo album. It’s of course a classic, even though the very stripped down (even by his standards) nature of it may not be to everyone’s taste. Anyway, several of his best known songs are featured on this album, like the opener ‘Suzanne’. His lyrics did already at this early stage often combine erotic and religious imagiry in a very striking way, and this can be heard in this wonderful song. His singing style was, as always, very low key – but at the same time intense and pasionate. ‘So Long, Marianne’ and ‘Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’ are more uptempo songs with great melodies. But my personal favourites on this album are the less known ones, and especially the nearly six minutes epic ‘Master Song’. It’s very mysterious sounding, and a song that it’s easy to get totally lost in. Wonderful stuff. ‘Winter Lady’ and ‘Sisters of Mercy’ (could the world’s most well known gothrock band have taken its name from this song? Not impossible) are short and sweet, while other songs like ‘Stories of The Street’ and the very haunting album closer ‘One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong’ are much darker. All in all a very recommended folk/singer songwriter album.