Leonard Cohen - Dear Heather • CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

fifties before heading off to a monastery in his sixties can. "They say, 'Look at me, Leonard/Look at me one last time.' "

What makes Dear Heather tick are the ladies who look back: longtime co-composer/producer Sharon Robinson and producer-engineer Leanne Ungar, as well as occasional co-lead vocalist Anjani Thomas, who open up the arrangements from the often repetitive Casio-lounge feel of 2001's Ten New Songs. Sometimes their work evokes wood paneling and tip jars ("Go No More A-Roving," with words by another famous poet, Lord Byron); sometimes it's stark (the spoken-with-piano "Villanelle for Our Time"); sometimes subdued and trip-hoppy ("The Letters"). But given how monochromatic Cohen tends to be, the jumbled feel works in Dear Heather's favor.

What exactly is going on? Everyone's in a funk yet Leonard Cohen has never sounded so serenely contented. Old fans, don't fear: Lenny's still moody and mysterious, but he gracefully gives thanks to ladies who comfort old poets like himself ("Because Of") and returns the favor ("There For You"). A bear hug from a sly, old fox.