Various Positions by Leonard Cohen

Various Positions, Leonard Cohen's seventh album, arrived on Columbia in December 1984, and the poet who had come to music late had discovered the synthesizer. John Lissauer produced, and the new keyboards glow and pulse most of all on the opening track, lending that weathered voice a strangely modern halo. Just as important is Jennifer Warnes, who had sung harmonies on Recent Songs and here gets her name next to Cohen's as vocalist on every track, her clear tone curling around his low rumble like smoke around a candle.

"Dance Me to the End of Love" sways with Old World courtliness, and tucked away on the record is "Hallelujah", the song that would become the most famous thing he ever wrote.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.