Classic Album Review : Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate (1971)

Listen to Songs of Love and Hate here

I’m usually not a folk guy. Every man with an acoustic guitar and something profound to say to an ex-girlfriend is indistinguishable to me. It’s like they’re all playing the same song over and over again. Of course, there are exceptions to my overall distaste of folk. Early Leonard Cohen’s lyricism, ambition and nuanced sense of melody made him a gorgeous anomaly in the landscape of emotional bearded weirdos. His third album Songs from Love and Hate is a luscious, wonderful and emotional masterpiece that will stick with you for all the right and the wrong reasons.

Songs from Love and Hate is best known as the-album-with-famous-blue-raincoat on it and there’s a reason for that. It’s an all-time classic and one of Leonard Cohen’s best narrative pieces. Famous Blue Raincoat is a fictional letter written to a friend who dated the woman he loved for a brief period of time. The conflicting feelings and the backhanded gratitude he shows are extremely poignant. When he calls his friend “my brother, my killer” at the end and thanks him for standing in his way, he deliberately make himself the villain in this love story.

You want to root for him because he’s Leonard Cohen (who you already love) but he doesn’t deserve Jane and the unknown party who does is left stranded and heartbroken. It’s extremely potent. A beautiful ode to the complexity of love in which Cohen successfully shares his inner conflict with the listener. But Famous Blue Raincoat is not the only immortal on Songs of Love and Hate. The opener Avalanche is another skull crusher of an emotional thrill ride. It’s apparently based on a poem he’s written a couple years prior. A very angry and defiant poem that is.

What makes Avalanche come together is the inclusion of strings in key moments of the song. It’s mostly played in Cohen’s trademark Spanish-like guitar, but when the intensity ramps up: BOOM. He hits you up with strings. It’s simple, but super effective. I don’t know exactly what the song is about, but lines like: When I am on a pedestal/You did not raise me there hits me right in the feels. Avalanche is seething with a very masculine anger and the loneliness we all feel on certain evenings where nothing can be beautiful. It make you want to drink yourself into oblivion.

But enough about the classics. Let me tell you about a song everyone’s forgotten about: Diamonds in the Mine. It is so weird and so fucking good. It’s the most depressing upbeat pop song ever recorded. It is (perhaps with So Long, Marianne) the first singalong chorus that Leonard Cohen’s ever written. It’s a song about the bullshit stories people tell themselves to stay hopeful and it’s great. It’s the kind of song you sing on top of your lungs walking home drunk at 4 AM. It’s the closest Cohen’s ever been to Motörhead’s fuck-you-all-I’m-drinking-myself-to-death philosophy.

So, Famous Blue Raincoat, Avalanche and Diamonds in the Mine are the three immortals on Songs of Love and Hate. But they are the “hate” part in the concept. The most serene song on the album is probably Love Calls You By Your Name, which is a beautiful, straightforward ballad about embracing being in the middle of things and not long for beginning or endings anymore. Say what you want about Leonard Cohen, but he really understood love. Dress Rehearsal Rag is another great song that confronts the challenges of success in Cohen’s no bullshit style.

I understand why it’s a famous song, but it benefited from revisionist history a little. It’s far from being a standout on the record.

The other song on Songs of Love and Hate that’s really memorable is Joan of Arc, which is a dialogue between the famous soldier and the fire consuming her at the stake. While I have my qualms with the unnecessary chorus of lalalas, it’s an emotionally grueling narrative piece. It comes right on the tail of Famous Blue Raincoat too, so it’s a one-two punch that’ll leave you wobbling with your earphones on. There isn’t a bad song on Songs of Love and Hate. Not even an average one. They all range from good to unforgettably great.

Songs of Love and Hate is an AMAZING folk record. It’s angry, moody and wholeheartedly personal. It was initially not well received and gave Leonard Cohen the reputation of being a doom and gloom guy, but I’m a doom and gloom guy too and there is power in these words and melodies. Along with his producer Bob Johnston, he really trimmed down the more exploratory approach from Songs from a Room and refined his style. Songs of Love and Hate will turn 50 next year, but it hasn’t aged a day. The Leonard Cohen we know and love was really born on this record.

8.8/10