Album Review : Leonard Cohen - New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974)
Listen to New Skin for the Old Ceremony here
The memory we keep of Leonard Cohen in 2020 is very specific. He was a brooding poet who sung of love and doom with lyrics so sharp and intimate that everybody related on a personal level. Cohen eventually turned out to be exactly that, but it was a long and winding road to self-discovery for the Canadian crooner. Experimenting is a normal and healthy step in the process of figuring out who you are and his fourth album New Skin for the Old Ceremony captures exactly that period of his artistic life where he tried shit out. That’s probably why it isn’t great.
Don’t get me wrong, there are great songs on New Skin for the Old Ceremony. Chelsea Hotel #2 is an immortal, transcendent ballad and the greatest song about unexpected sex ever recorded. The largely forgotten Why don’t you try is a heartbreaking letter from a man to a lover hung up on someone from her past. I’m not the biggest fan of Who by fire, but it’s one of Leonard Cohen’s most instantly recognizable songs. There are songs to remember this album by. But except for Chelsea Hotel #2 , they could’ve all been featured on earlier records.
It’s when New Skin for the Old Ceremony tries new things that it gets more puzzling. Cohen moves on from the minimalist guitar & strings approach and explores new ideas. Sometimes in the middle of a freaking song. Is this what you wanted? starts like a normal folk song and suddenly become swanky R&B when the chorus hits. Not only it’s weird, but R&B is a musical genre where lyrics have to be tailored to the melody, which is counterintuitive to Cohen’s heavy poetic approach. The end result is clumsy and confusing, like unfortunately many songs on the record.
Lover, Lover, Lover is perhaps my least favorite song on New Skin for the Old Ceremony and the most un-Cohen song I’ve ever heard. It sounds like what would emerge from the wreckage of a car accident involving folk music and disco. Cohen was working with producer John Lissauer for this record and I’m pretty sure all the weird stuff were his ideas, given that our guy pretty much tailored his style to the producer he was working with at the beginning of his career. Minimalism turned out to be Leonard Cohen’s thing, but it took an album like this to figure it out.
New Skin for the Old Ceremony is not terrible. It is full of enjoyable songs like A Singer Must Die, I Tried to Leave You and Take This Longing. These songs aren’t memorable like some of the earlier or later material would be, though. If anything, New Skin for the Old Ceremony helped me better understand Leonard Cohen’s embattled relationship with the music industry. It’s a business that’ll require you to systematically produce for a market every couple years, whether you’re inspired or not. It’s a constant struggle for an artist’s soul. But Cohen eventually emerged the winner.
6.8/10
