Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
August 30th, 2006
Leonard Cohen’s songwriting stands on its own. It always has. I’m certain that the recent movie documentary concerning his life and music sheds some light on his working process and explores the trials and tribulations that contributed to his timeless portfolio of music—which is exactly why I was excited to see the soundtrack containing so many well-respected artists paying tribute to his songs.
I may be developing a small crush on Martha Wainwright, maybe even more than her brother, but I’m not sure her version of Tower of Song was the best choice for the album opener. It does a commendable job, though, of offsetting the particularly disappointing collaborative effort between the author of honor and U2 (the only not-concert recording on the album). She seems better suited for the narrative romance of The Traitor.
Brother Rufus performs a predictably slow and steady version of Chelsea Hotel No. 2. However, the Cuban influence arrangement of his second contribution, Everybody Knows, truly gives the song a new signature.
The Handsome Family does a so-so rendition of one of my favorite Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat, but since the author himself has gone on record many times over the years, expressing his own disappointment in the execution of that song (proof that artists aren’t always the best judge of their own work), it may indeed be fitting. Still, if you want to truly be haunted by a mysterious love triangle, nothing beats the original.
Just as he did on Lou Reed’s Animal Serenade, the phenomenally tender expression of Antony’s voice in his rendition of If It Be Your Will totally paralyzes any previous thought or emotion into total subservience. I don’t care how many covers have been done in the past, Cohen fans will hear this song for first time on this album. His respect to the tenderness it emotes is simply remarkable.
Other notables include Teddy Thompson, who sounds well on his way to creating a stage presence as powerful as his old man. I’m particularly fond of his take on The Future, which stands out certain phrases like “I’m the little Jew who wrote the Bible” and “I’ve seen the future, baby, it is murder” in my head. Those lines are so Leonard, and I’ve heard them many times before, but they creep through in new and unexpected ways through the ever-changing subjectivity of music.
And that’s the whole point, really. These songs do come alive with new meaning and new surprises at just about every corner. The lyrical expression contained within can be played over and over, and the stuff just never gets old. If only the same were true of the artist, we wouldn’t need movie documentaries to get inside his head, vainly attempting to harvest his special genius for ourselves.