Album Review : Leonard Cohen - The Future (1992)
Logically, Leonard Cohen’s ninth studio album The Future should’ve been a crippling failure. Released a mere four years after the insurmountable I’m Your Man, it should’ve signaled the end of his career. But it didn’t. In many ways, The Future was to I’m Your Man what Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion albums were to Appetite for Destruction: a graceful bookend. The end of an era and the confirmation that Leonard Cohen is the Michael Jordan of poetry.
Although it aged considerably worse than other classic Leonard Cohen records (i.e the Use Your Illusion comparison), The Future has some of his most poignant and sophisticated writing. It’s weird. Lyrically it’s some of his best work and musically, it’s once again mishmash of what an aging musician believes the kid are listening to. I would be hard-pressed to find a most important song on the album, but with a gun to my head, I’d probably say Democracy.
While Cohen inexplicably decided to make it a techno song (hence why I picked the EXCELLENT Lumineers cover instead), Democracy (I believe) his best written song. It is a gorgeous, hopeful plea for a better future, filled with strong images and subtle nuances. In contrast to a song like The Future, it comes off as more complex and emotive because it channels every shade of the human experience. Democracy makes you want to live in a better world.
I don’t dislike The Future, but Democracy is better. The former is equally eloquent, but locked in a cynical storytelling perspective. Sometimes it’s cryptic, others it’s unequivocally condemning what’s ahead the way old grumpy men do: It’s seen the future brother/It is murder). The Future didn’t survive time as well as other Leonard Cohen songs because of that. People don’t listen to him for his scathing politics. Cohen is loved for his precise depictions of beauty.
The Future was timely, but not immortal
Anthem is the other important song on The Future. More of a conventional spoken poem, it is a beautiful ode to old wounds and human imperfection that crescendo’s into it’s iconic chorus: There is a crack, a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in. The one surprise I had listening to The Future was the closer Tacoma Trailer, which is a six minutes meditative instrumental. It weirdly translates the feeling of listening to a Leonard Cohen song without words.
There’s no real profound beauty to be found in the other songs of The Future, but there’s a surprising musical cohesiveness to it. On songs like Closing Time and Light as a Breeze, Cohen seems to embrace the part of the world weary crooner who unfurls his complex feelings in front of a piano, somewhere in a smoky barroom. They are mostly love songs that promise a happy, stable future… which is great, but Leonard Cohen wrote better love songs.
What to make of The Future? It has an exquisitely written song (Democracy), one exquisitely written (albeit more intimate) poem (Anthem), a powerful cynical statement about global politics (The Future), a transfixing instrumental (Tacoma Trailer) and a series of good, but not great love songs. It’s remarkably steady and lacks a producer that plays to Leonard Cohen’s strengths. It will be remembered for its pieces, but the bigger picture will be forgotten.
7.8/10
