Leonard Cohen

Bilked out of millions by his former manager and lover, Leonard Cohen found himself in a place that's common in these recession-wracked times, albeit one from which stardom typically protects: finding bare cupboards instead of saving accounts. Cohen long ago rode off into a reclusive retirement, living amongst mountains and monks. The way to make a quick buck may have seemed obvious to fans, but he was reluctant–not only for the reasons he originally abandoned the road, but also because he wasn’t sure that the audience would still be there.

Now still in the midst of a massive tour–his first in a decade and a half–Cohen has received a resounded confirmation from his fans: they have been waiting for him all along. He, in turn, has validated the adoration with generous, catalog-spanning shows. The root of Cohen's return may have been involuntary misfortune, but he's flipped the script and made it a triumphant, joyful reunion on Live In London. The double-disc live album catches up with the legend after a lengthy sweep through Europe and his native Canada; by this point in the tour, whatever rust may have lingered has been stripped away. Cohen’s collaborators are split between old (including co-writer and vocalist Sharon Robinson and band director Roscoe Beck) and new (multi-instrumentalist Javier Mas, UK folk duo The Webb Sisters). Even if those names are unfamiliar to the listener going in, they will be ingrained by the end of the 26-song set, as Cohen never misses an opportunity to graciously salute a soloist by name.

Cohen leads the band through jovial renditions that patiently span six or seven minutes, interspersed with deliciously droll banter (in describing his last, long-ago appearance on a London stage, he refers to being “60 years old, just a kid with a crazy dream”). Older songs receive transformations, not least due to Cohen’s weathered voice, but also because of flourishes like the archilaud solo (from Mas) that begins “Who By Fire.” These early gems are treated respectfully, though, so that fans who have been dreaming of a live rendition of “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye” or “Suzanne” are able to walk away smiling, even though there’s no way for them to sound as they did when a young, pre-baritone Cohen committed them to record in the late ‘60s. The larger scope of mid-career tracks like 1985’s “Dance Me To The End of Love” and 1988’s “Everybody Knows” sound better than ever in this context.

With great singers, the cliché is that they could sing the phone book and make it sound compelling. With Cohen, perhaps it’s more the case that he could scrawl a note in the margins of a phone book and still have it read as poetry. He's one of the great lyricists of the last century, and given that the Live In London setlist draws heavily from his best work, the timeless lines seem to fall one after the other. Even when the music fades into the distant background on “Recitation,” Cohen has no problem keeping the audience’s attention. “I’m good at love, I’m good at hate,” he confides in his aged, graveled baritone. “It’s in between I freeze.”

—Adam McKibbin
04.08.09

As more than one writer has pointed out, in 2008 and 2009 Leonard Cohen's loss became his audience's gain. After spending five years living as a monk in a Buddhist monastery during a sabbatical from music, Cohen discovered in 2005 that his former business manager had embezzled nearly all his savings, and two years later, in order to put his finances back in order, he warily agreed to an international concert tour, his first in nearly a decade and a half. Given the circumstances that prompted Cohen's return to the stage as well as his age -- 73 when the tour began -- one would have the right to wonder just how enthusiastic the great songwriter would be about meeting his audience again. But judging from Live in London -- a two-disc set recorded during a rapturously received appearance at London's O2 Arena on July 17, 2008 -- these concerts have unexpectedly given Cohen a chance to remind the world of his strengths as a musician and a performer, and he's embraced the opportunity with joy. The notion of Leonard Cohen playing a 20,000-seat arena may seem a bit surprising (at least in America), but Cohen and his nine-member supporting ensemble give 25 songs from his catalog a treatment that fills them out enough to work in a massive room (at least compared to the intimate arrangements of his early work) without crushing the nuances of gentler numbers like "Who by Fire" and "Suzanne," while "The Future" and "Democracy" sound just as big as they need to be. There's sometimes a bit too much David Sanborn in Dino Soldo's horn solos, but otherwise the band is superb -- especially Javier Mas on banduria, laud, archilaud, and guitar, and the vocal ensemble of Sharon Robinson, Charley Webb, and Hattie Webb -- and despite the craggy, weathered state of Cohen's voice, he sounds sure and committed from the first moment to the last, often finding notes that seem elusive at first, and his performance here is genuinely engrossing. It's also surprisingly witty; Cohen may have a reputation as one of the most dour performers in contemporary music, but his between-song patter is charmingly droll, and he finds a passion and a humanity in his songs that sets them apart from their studio counterparts. Cohen sounds genuinely moved by the affectionate reception he receives from his audience, and he seems determined to give them a show to match their loyalty, and with his band (who he frequently lauds during the performance) he truly gives of himself; if this isn't quite the strongest live performance Cohen has released for public consumption, it's certainly the warmest and the most emotionally resonant. Perhaps fate forced Leonard Cohen's hand to stage the tour documented in part on Live in London, but it seems that fate knows just what it's doing, and this album eloquently demonstrates how much Cohen still has to offer, and how clearly his music still speaks to him (and us). ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide