Ranking Every Leonard Cohen Album : From Worst to Best

Leonard Cohen has fifteen studio records and prior to 2020, I only had reviewed one. I’ve claimed to be a massive Cohen fan for over a decade now, so it felt weird not to know his musical legacy inside and now. Fast forward twelve months later, it’s not a problem anymore. I am a Leonard Cohen savant and I’m going to share my knowledge with you. Long story short, half of the albums are absolutely fucking great and the other… not so bad. More like… inconclusive?

You’ll notice that several albums have the same rating, yet different ranks. That means they are similarly enjoyable, but the better are better by a nose and the worse are worse by a fraction of a decimal. It’s a personal appreciation anyway, so you take it as seriously as you want to. Whether you’re an expert, a casual Leonard Cohen fan or someone vaguely familiar with his poetry only, I hope you’ll find something you enrich your life in there.

Because Leonard Cohen sure enriched my.

15th - Dear Heather (2004) - 6.2

The word I would use to describe this album is uninspired. One of Leonard Cohen’s only problems as a songwriter is that he never quite figured out who he was musically and it shows on Dear Heather more than anywhere else. It feels like listening to a jam session between old friends that you weren’t supposed to listen to. If Dear Heather is mostly forgotten today, it’s because few people listened to it more than once. A vague, purposeless blip in his glorious career.

Favorites: None

14th - Death of a Ladies Man (1977) - 6.6

Death of a Ladies Man is almost universally regarded to be the worst album in Leonard Cohen’s career, but it is merely weird. It is like he is playing a role. What you hear on it is the person Phil Spector thinks Leonard Cohen is and not quite Cohen himself. It is bombastic, shallow and completely ridiculous. Not quite unpleasant, though. Death of a Ladies Man is one of these albums that must’ve felt disastrous on the spot, but that is oddly compelling in retrospect.

Favorites: Idoline, Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On

13th - New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974) - 6.8

The seventies were difficult on Cohen. His original trilogy had monstrous success and he was pressured to keep the ball rolling by the music industry. He clearly didn’t have a plan what was to come. New Skin for the Old Ceremony is a minimalist and meandering record that has awesome writing and poor music on it. It is probably what got him paired up with Phil Spector for the Death of a Ladies Man fiasco. Most songs on it are instantly forgettable.

Favorites : Chelsea Hotel #2

12th - Recent Songs (1979) - 7.4

I call this album the second birth of Leonard Cohen. It is when he started circling the wagons and working almost exclusively with a team of close collaborators. The songs are long, winding an sometimes clumsy, but there’s passion and character to them. The only reason why no songs from that record have become memorable hits is that he cracked the formula for writing bangers on his next record. A solid classic folk style Leonard Cohen record.

Favorites : The Guests

11th - Popular Problems (2014) - 7.8

We’re already starting to enter the Cohen-can-do-no-wrong era. We’re not quite there, but almost. Popular Problems is a late era record that is classy, subdued and precise. It is also searing hot with Leonard Cohen’s hard-earned world weariness. That not-quite-cynicism we’re all so fond of. No song had quite the power of the live hits, but there are one or two memorable jams on it that remind you how awesome old man Cohen was.

Favorites : Nevermind, Almost Like The Blues

10th - Song from a Room (1969) - 7.8

Some of you will wince, but I don’t care. Songs from a Room is a very good record. If it is so low on the list, it is because Leonard Cohen consistently wrote better. Including two better folks records that came before and after Songs from a Room. The songs are mostly straightforward folk, with tinges of country music and very timid experimentation. It kind of is the Bird on a Wire album after all and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The rest is an acquired taste.

Favorites: Bird on a Wire; Seems So Long Ago, Nancy

 9th - The Future (1992) - 7.8

If I was judging this album on writing alone, it might’ve ranked first. The writing is insanely good. But the musical side of The Future is… ugh, of its time? Leonard Cohen was going through a techno phase then and it didn’t age well. At all. For him, music was just a vehicle to get his words heard and it didn’t seem to matter which genre it was. One of my favorite things about The Future is hearing covers of its songs because they rock more than the originals.

Favorites: The Future, Democracy, Anthem

8th - Thanks for the Dance (2019) - 8.0

A beautiful, brittle, finely crafted au revoir of an album. Built from the bare bones of Leonard Cohen’s final recording session with his son Adam, Thanks for the Dance is a moment of intimacy spend with Cohen’s consciousness. It is the kind of album you listen from front to back when you’re in a particular mood. There are no powerful standouts. It flows on you like a river and alters your state of mind. One of my favorite posthumous records ever.

Favorites: Happens to the Heart, The Night of Santiago, Thanks for the Dance, The Hills

7th - Various Positions (1984) - 8.1

The beginning of Casio-era Cohen. If this album is so well-remembered today, it is because it’s propelled by two monster, career-defining hits. If there weren’t Hallelujah and Dance Me to the End of Love on that record, it would rank between Recent Songs and Popular Problems. These two songs are just powerful enough to elevate the entire thing. This is also the beginning of an era where Cohen had a stronger pop consciousness in his writing.

Favorites: Dance Me to the End of Love, Hallelujah

 6th - Old Ideas (2012) - 8.2

I’ll never say it enough: old man Cohen was awesome. Old Ideas is an angry, passionate and broken hearted record that would elevate any wounded soul. Released after an eight year silence, it is searing with eloquence and dark wisdom that we’ve came to appreciate him for. Late-era Leonard Cohen suffers a lot from the fact he’s written so many hits already, but there are a couple immortals on this album. It is everything we love about him.

Favorites: Darkness, Amen, Different Sides

5th - Ten New Songs (2001) - 8.3

Another album released after an absurdly long layoff. They really suited Cohen. Ten New Songs is inspired, quite and controlled in the best possible way. Written in close collaboration with his long-time friend Sharon Robinson, their voices intertwine on this record to almost perfection. The borderline sexual sense of intimacy Leonard Cohen was capable of evoking is overflowing on Ten New Songs. It is one of these albums without bad songs.

Favorites: In My Secret Life, A Thousand Kisses Deep, That Don’t Make it Junk, You Have Loved Enough

 4th - You Want It Darker (2016) - 8.3

My favorite late-era Cohen and the last album he released before passing. You Want It Darker is lead by an absolute banger of a title song, which ranks in the top 10 of his greatest hits. Given that I’m into the bleaker, bluesier side of music on any given day, I was more inclined to like this album and perhaps you won’t enjoy it as much as I did. Four years later, it is still a go-to mood setter for me. It has the dark and powerful aura of a haunted record.

Favorites: You Want It Darker, It Seemed the Better Way

3rd - Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) - 8.4

This album is the epitome of early-era Leonard Cohen. The songs are long, complex, luscious and sound like nothing you’ve ever heard elsewhere. Clearly, they were not meant to be songs in the first place. But Cohen’s enchanting guitar melodies and dreamlike delivery create this weird paradigm where these songs are allowed to exist. I’ve never heard quite anything like Songs of Leonard Cohen before of after listening to it. It’s unique.

Favorites: Suzanne, So Long Marianne, The Stranger Song

2nd - Songs of Love & Hate (1971) - 8.8

This one is my biggest discovery of the entire process. Holy shit, this album is so fucking good. Halfway between folk and country, it is dark, brooding and fucking ferocious. Songs of Love & Hate is great music to get drunk to if you don’t feel like being a happy drunk. It is full of hurt and raw anger. Those who love the darker side of Leonard Cohen need to give this album a spin. It is some of the best catharsis for negative emotions I ever heard

Favorites: Avalanche, Diamonds in the Mine, Famous Blue Raincoat

 1st - I’m Your Man (1988) - 9.3

I guess no one’s surprised, huh? This is one of the greatest albums ever recorded. Not only there aren’t any bad songs on it, but most of them are hits he sang live for the rest of his life. The only criticism I had for it is that it was already so packed with memories that it felt only loosely put together, like he was writing hits over hits without caring if they paired good. I’m Your Man is a monolith in contemporary culture that Leonard Cohen will be remembered by.

Favorites: I’m Your Man, Everybody Knows, First We Take Manhattan, Tower of Song