Classic Album Review : Leonard Cohen - Various Positions (1984)
Listen to Various Positions here
The secret of Leonard Cohen’s longevity in the music industry lies in several factors. Notably tremendous songwriting and heartfelt live performances, but the abnormally long hiatus between records is part of the equation also. It allowed Cohen to smoothly evolve with the times and let creativity dictate his output instead of commercial imperatives. His transformation into the effortless swagster we remember today truly began on Various Positions in 1984. It’s where he abandoned the Dylan-like guitar-and-voice minimalism and came into his own as a recording artist.
Various Positions have songs that matter and songs that don’t, just like every other Leonard Cohen record. Notably two songs that were part of his live sets for the rest of his life: Dance Me To The End Of Love and Hallelujah. It’s easy to understand who both songs ended up being so beloved. The former is an eerily danceable waltz with imagery that reflect the nature of true love *, which turned it instantly into a wedding classic. It probably happened by accident too. Cohen notoriously used a Casio keyboard to compose this album, which comes with automated melodies.
The second immortal song on Various Positions is perhaps Leonard Cohen’s best know song Hallelujah. The reasons why it became so big are more sophisticated. First, it’s a song about seeing and understanding the sacred in everyday life. Notably in sex. It’s full of psychosexual imagery and thankfulness to the lord, two things people really relate to. It’s also one of the best songwriting efforts of his career, which he awesomely brags about in the first verse. It has benevolent, lulling quality to it, before ramping into the killer chorus. It’s mechanically and emotionally great.
The other songs of Various Positions don’t really matter. There isn’t a dud on the entire record, but it reverts to Cohen’s comfort zone as a late night baladeer. They’re feats of musical storytelling more than they are proper songs. Take Night Comes On for example, which is the gorgeous, moving story of a man’s evolving relationship to his family. It barely has a chorus at all. The storytelling takes all the place and while it’s undoubtedly good, it’s not that memorable. 1) Cohen told better stories and 2) The melody is accessory to it. It’s not something you can hum at all.
One interesting detail on Various Position is that Leonard Cohen revisits the old country influences he experienced with on Songs From A Room. The luscious pedal steel guitar on Hunter’s Lullaby give it an almost Johnny Cash-like quality that stands out on the record. The Captain is more of a traditional Western song that could be heard in Texas dance halls, with its really iconoclast mix of piano and violin. It sounds out of place in such a different, modern sounding album (Casio keyboards were the shit in 1984) but it ties up nicely with Cohen’s past influences.
Some of you might want to murder me for what I’m about to say but: Various Positions is overrated in Leonard Cohen’s discography, but only slightly. It was the beginning of his golden era, but it’s still kind of all over the place. We remember it fondly because it has two juggernauts on it, but there’s a reason why we don’t remember the rest and why the album initially didn’t sold all that well. It’s a very good record, but it wouldn’t be nowhere near as memorable as it is without the two strategically places tentpole hits. The fully assumed songwriter wasn’t there yet.
Don’t get me wrong: Leonard Cohen’s standards were insanely high and Various Positions lives up to them in spurts. It’s just not consistently great like we remember it to be.
8.1/10
* My favorite line: Let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone.
