Leonard Cohen - Various Positions CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

has had an important influence on a whole generation of pop composers, and anything he does is worth hearing.

Many of the new songs have a surprising country & western flavor, which comes partly from the use of pedal steel guitars and partly from the simple song structures. "Heart with No Companion" wouldn't sound out of place on a Johnny Cash record. "The Captain" is an almost jokey Socratic dialogue; "Dance Me to the End of Love" sounds like a Greek dance mixed with a French street song; and "The Law" is a classically enigmatic Leonard Cohen number. But "Night Comes On" expresses the real essence of Cohen's sensibility, which is not a morbid longing for death but a Samuel Beckett-like meditation on what it takes to keep going. That song also makes the best use of Jennifer Warnes' haunting harmonies, the high point in John Lissauer's lucid and beautiful production. (RS 450)

DON SHEWEY

Released after a long break from recording, this is another career highlight, even if the chiaroscuro lighting on the cover photo shot ensured that this was initially ignored in neon-mad 1985. Classic Cohen tracks include "Dance Me to the End of Love," "Coming Back to You" and "Hallelujah," which has to be one of the most beautiful, if decidedly unorthodox, hymns ever written.