You Want It Darker by Leonard Cohen

You Want It Darker, Leonard Cohen's fourteenth album, came out on Columbia on October 21, 2016, and 17 days later he was gone. It's a record made with the end in plain view, produced by Adam Cohen alongside Patrick Leonard, and it stares straight at death and God without flinching, cracking a few dry jokes along the way.

The voice is a low, cavernous rumble now, barely above a murmur, and the arrangements keep a respectful distance, leaving room for every syllable to land. The title track sets the tone, grave and hypnotic, and it went on to win the Grammy for Best Rock Performance in January 2018. Critics hailed the album, and it stands as the last Cohen record released in his lifetime; Thanks for the Dance followed in 2019.

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