Album Review: Leonard Cohen Delivers His Final Masterpiece with 'Thanks for the Dance'

Three years after his death, Leonard Cohen delivers his masterful swan song with the help of his son and a handful of collaborators.

Written by C.S. Harper

Leonard Cohen’s death on Nov. 7, 2016, marked one of the greatest losses that the world witnessed that year. Having penned “Hallelujah” and released 14 albums over five decades, Cohen has had a profound impact on popular culture. Released 19 days before his death, his 14th album, You Want It Darker, has more somber elements and death-related lyrics than his previous albums. Although You Want It Darker seems like an appropriate conclusion to Cohen’s iconic legacy, the Canadian singer-songwriter asked his son, Adam Cohen, to finish unreleased songs he had recorded during the same studio sessions.

Three years later, these songs have come into fruition in Leonard’s latest record, Thanks for the Dance. Due to Adam’s production and contributions from artists like Beck and Spanish guitarist Javier Más, this album has a diverse sound compared to Leonard’s previous work. Despite Thanks for the Dance’s experimentation beyond Leonard’s characteristic folk sound, its songs are still uniquely his. As recording engineer Michael Chaves said in the short documentary “The Story of Thanks for the Dance,” “Quite honestly, we asked ourselves every step of the way, ‘Wait, would [Leonard] like that?’”

Abiding by Leonard’s perfectionistic standards (“Hallelujah” took him five years to write), Adam and his collaborators spent three years producing Thanks for the Dance. As a result, the album stays true to Leonard’s vision with its meticulous guitar-driven folk and unaltered lyrics.

Thanks for the Dance begins with “What Happens to the Heart,” which was first published as a poem in Leonard’s book The Flame. Whereas You Want It Darker’s opening title track has sparse production and a dark sound, “What Happens to the Heart” has lush instrumentation, with violins, melancholy piano chords, and Más’ haunting Spanish laúd.

On the first verse, Leonard reflects on his career, singing “I was always working steady / But I never called it art.” Over the course of the song, Cohen’s focus shifts to his past love life, as he repeats versions of the refrain “So I’ve come here to revisit / What happens to the heart.” With its rich production and complex metaphorical language, “What Happens to the Heart” sets the tone for the rest of the album.

The first half of Thanks for the Dance is a supercut of Leonard’s moments with past loves. On “It’s Torn,” Cohen expresses his longing for a former lover (“You gave me a lily / But now it’s a field”), and on “The Night of Santiago,” he recalls a sexual encounter with a married woman. In his signature style, Leonard looks back at the women in Thanks for the Dance endearingly, using his trademark poetic imagery to reflect on his past with aged wisdom. On “The Night of Santiago,” he croaks, “I didn’t fall in love of course / It’s never up to you.” “The Night of Santiago” deviates from Leonard’s typical soft folk sound through its Spanish influences. Like Leonard’s lyrics in the song, Más and Carlos de Jacoba’s fast guitars and flamenco-style clapping convey passionate excitement.

While this part of the album recollects snippets of Leonard’s life, the title track discusses it in its entirety. As Adam said about this song in “The Story of Thanks for the Dance,” “Thanks for the dance of life. Thanks for the highs, the lows, the sweetness, the bitterness, the tragedy, the comedy, the beauty, the sourness, the lightness. It’s what [Leonard] would have called it.”

In this song, Leonard thanks a romantic partner (likely Marianne Ihnen, the same woman from his 1967 song “So Long, Marianne”), for her company over the years and their unborn child: “Thanks for the dance / And the baby you carried / It was almost a daughter or a son.” Cohen also addresses his then-present condition, singing “And there’s nothing to do / But to wonder if you / Are as hopeless as me.”

In the second half of the album, Leonard continues to discuss the suffering he experienced during his final days. On “The Goal,” he accepts his fate as he sings, “I sit in my chair / I look at the street / The neighbor returns / My smile of defeat.” Similarly, he describes death as a woman who will take away his pain on “The Hills”: “I know she is coming / And I know she will look / And that is the longing / And that is the hook.” He also infuses his usual religious themes into this song. Rather than confronting God as he did in You Want It Darker, Leonard thanks Him for relieving his pain, crooning “I’m living on pills / For which I thank God.” On this track, Adam abandons Spanish embellishments in favor of church-inspired music, using a female choir and anthemic organ sounds to complement the song’s message.

The ethereal closing track, “Listen to the Hummingbird,” almost feels like Leonard’s last words as he ascends into the afterlife. Its gorgeous guitar arpeggios and minimalist piano chords beautifully complement Leonard’s baritone growl as he sings variations of the lines “Listen to the hummingbird / Whose wings you cannot see / Listen to the hummingbird / Don’t listen to me.” His acceptance of his death has allowed him to appreciate the gifts of life, and he urges the listener to appreciate life’s blessings as well. By instructing the listener not to listen to him, Leonard prepares them for his approaching absence.

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (Rama)

Rather than serving as a collection of leftovers from You Want It Darker, Thanks for the Dance expands on its predecessor’s sound and themes to craft a different narrative. While Leonard reflects on his regrets in You Want It Darker, he recalls fond memories during the last moments of his life in Thanks for the Dance. As such, the latter album signifies Leonard’s transition from depression to acceptance as he prepares for death. Thanks for the Dance’s perfect production and insightful narrative make it the ultimate ode to Leonard’s art and the women who inspired it. Thanks to fellow artists’ musical contributions and his lyrical dexterity, Leonard Cohen has crafted his sonically and thematically richest record.

REVIEWSAfterglow ATXNovember 25, 2019C.S. Harper, folk, album review, C.S. Hayter