Rating: 10.0
“When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon. Don’t turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon.” Leonard Cohen is primarily a poet, not some kind of rock and roll juggernaut. Several volumes of his poetry were published, along with two novels, years before he recorded his first album, released in 1967. His first three records are essential folk masterpieces that are a world apart from his later recordings, where he would begin to stray musically. The reissues are a blinding example of Leonard Cohen at his best. His first album is a highly literate work of sheer brilliance that paved the way for the also near perfect second and third albums. They have just been given the remastering treatment and the re-releases come in classy hardback book packaging. As one would expect, included are the lyrics, which were criminally missing from the earlier cd versions of Songs From a Room and Songs of Love and Hate. There are also a few unreleased tracks thrown in to make us suckers once again purchase albums that we already owned.
