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Sep 30, 2014Popular Problems reveals that at 80, Cohen not only has plenty left, but is on top of his game.
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Sep 19, 2014Those who dismiss his vocals as monotone are missing out on the soulful power he brings to “Did I Ever Love You” or the sly humor he ladles on “Slow.”
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Sep 29, 2014The results are extremely life-affirming.
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Oct 3, 2014The great just gets greater.
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Classic Rock MagazineDec 17, 2014The result is an autumnal masterpiece to rank alongside anything by Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash. [Nov 2014, p.92]
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Sep 24, 2014Popular Problems flashes the exact same brilliance and suffers the exact same setbacks[as his last album]--namely that Cohen’s vocals continue their dark, leathery tumble into the lowest registers and that the production can be too syrupy, respectively.
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Sep 24, 2014Altogether, Popular Problems is another very good record from someone who many thought might not have such a thing in him, a concise collection of nine tracks curated by a man who has rediscovered his musical spark.
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Sep 19, 2014It's surprising, deeply moving and occasionally stunning.
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MagnetNov 12, 2014The music, co-created with producer Patrick Leonard, is sparse but energetically diverse, with dips into Memphis soul, country, cabaret and jazzy funk. [No. 115, p.58]
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MojoNov 5, 2014Leonard's half-spoken, slow, dark blues growl is powerful. [Nov 2014, p.86]
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Sep 22, 2014This album feels perfectly formed as it is though.
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Sep 22, 2014As intimate, beautiful and witty as ever, there’s an impassioned life in Leonard that's missing from many artists a quarter of his age.
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Sep 19, 2014This time Cohen tackles some big subjects more abstractly. It’s also one of his most musically rich and varied works.
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Oct 23, 2014The backup vocals that seem de rigueur on all Cohen albums are often unnecessary here and at their worst distracting when sung overtop the main attraction.
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Sep 23, 2014Popular Problems is a fine addition to that legacy. At 80 years old, Leonard Cohen is just beginning to hit his stride.
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Sep 24, 2014Like all of Cohen's albums, Popular Problems sounds slick but slightly off-kilter, like someone trying to imitate music they've read about but never actually heard.
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Sep 25, 2014Popular Problems is an album that listeners will return to, not just for the poetic depth we’ve come to expect from Mr. Cohen, but also for the sonic variety and virtuosity of his accompanists.
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Q MagazineOct 3, 2014His voice remains charming, devilish-yet-wise, and his delivery as beguiling as ever. [Nov 2014, p.109]
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Sep 23, 2014As usual, the freshest-sounding songs are those that tread the farthest from Cohen’s gypsy-folk roots, but here that’s most of them, save the plodding thud of “Samson In New Orleans” and the lilting, acoustic “You Got Me Singing.”
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Sep 19, 2014Nothing here feels laboured: he can deliver songs as beautifully wrought as Samson in New Orleans--a depiction of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina--with a gorgeous understatement that only magnifies its impact.
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Sep 19, 2014Popular Problems--note the drolly contradictory title--finds his agreeable baritone growl applied as usual to romantic disappointment and political venality with vivid, jolting metaphors (“I see the ghost of culture, with numbers on his wrist”) cutting to the quick.
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Sep 22, 2014There’s no lesson, no punch line, just the unflinching gaze of someone who’s already seen too much.
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Sep 22, 2014Mostly, Popular Problems presents Cohen’s wry, wracked recitations against almost ascetic backings overseen by Patrick Leonard, famed for his work with Madonna.
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Sep 22, 2014Cohen’s triumphant return to the live arena is reflected in the growling assuredness of his vocals. An absolute treat.
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Sep 19, 2014Popular Problems, his 13th studio album, has everything of which a latter-day Cohen album is popularly known to be composed: the amelodic, magical croak of Cohen’s own finely aged voice; the hyper-melodic shine of his singers, who have become as integral to Cohen’s project as he himself; a loose, blurring approach to genre and tone.
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UncutSep 25, 2014There is more raw drama here, a prevailing starkness. [Nov 2014, p.65]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 32 out of 39
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Mixed: 4 out of 39
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Negative: 3 out of 39
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Dec 16, 2014