Listen to the First Single from Leonard Cohen’s New Album
At 80, the prophet is still busy at work
August 19, 2014
Musician Leonard Cohen performs at Madison Square Garden on December 18, 2012 in New York City. (Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
Leonard Cohen, who will celebrate his 80th birthday in a few weeks, will reportedly mark the occasion with a new album, his 13th. It will be titled Popular Problems, and because the summer that is mercifully about to end has been dense with nothing but problems, popular or otherwise, here’s a preview of the album’s first song, “Almost Like the Blues.”
“Though I let my heart get frozen,” Cohen sings, “to keep away the rot / my father says I’m chosen / my mother says I’m not / I listened to their story of the gypsies and the Jews / It was good, it wasn’t boring / It was almost like the blues.”
Previous: Leonard Cohen’s Top Five Concert Appearances
Related: Leonard Cohen’s Long, Strange, Sometimes Tortured Road to Mastering His Own Sound
St. Leonard’s Passion
Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.
