Manafonistas

on life, music etc beyond mainstream

2012 22 Jan

Who by Fire – Loving Leonard’s „Old Ideas“ (reprise)

von: Michael Engelbrecht Filed under: Blog | TB | Comments off

The voice so deep, „a thousand kisses deep“, to say it with the words of one of his songs. After listening to the album three times in a row, you realize there is no standout track, no future evergreen (the word evergreen should be banned anyway: too much nostalgia even takes the good part of darkness away). The longest track, „Amen“, is a hymn, a prayer that agnostics and atheists might fall in love with while enjoying the feel of ancient banjo, sepia-coloured violin and simple cornet. On „Old Ideas“ the man with the golden voice (good old joke!) doesn’t act like a preacher at all, and every verse that could seem to send a message carved in stone and song is quickly counterbalanced by dark humour, self-irony and stoicism.

There are bluesy moments, slow-motion-gospel – and jazz-vibes. The gravity comes from the voice, and how it nearly creates new definitions of close miking and sub-bass, with the result of warm intimacy. And then there are all the female voices of older and newer times (from Jennifer Warnes to the Webb Sisters) doing the jobs of a second voice, a background, and a choir. An old Cohen tradition: but remember, on the first studio album of his demon-chasing life, the producer added these kind of angelic colours against the will of the singer to soften the scenery. An old trick that still works.

It is the sincerity of the artist that allows him to stick totally to old ideas without any suspect he might have lost it. He’s just slowing down, down, down – with a clear eye for exit signs and open places: „Sometimes I’d head for the highway/ I’m old and the mirrors don’t lie/ But crazy has places to hide in/ Deeper than saying goodbye,“ he sings/speaks on „Crazy To Love You“, accompanied by an acoustic guitar only. So, finally, closing time, silence, a last dying tone? No, that would be too pretentious. It’s better to leave the scene with a beat, a rhythmic soul groove – and asking for a kiss. Amen.

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