Old Ideas by Leonard Cohen

Old Ideas builds on the promise of his recent world tours and return to the limelight with his strongest, most unified album in decades.

The album is all warmth, putting Cohen’s improbably expressive smoker’s purr in the middle of simple yet sumptuous instrumentation

Arguably the warmest and most accessible part of his comeback trilogy.

The new album is a willfully modest affair, its tracks stripped to their most basic elements

On Old Ideas he filters these gifts of poetry and keen observation through his bruised, romantic outlook, into a fully-formed album

Old Ideas, unlike many late career albums, will only serve to further the legacy of this astounding artist, rather than tarnish it.

At the grand age of 77, Cohen has lost none of his passion – which, as usual, is impeccably restrained on this,

Sure, Cohen isn’t going to be climbing up the pop single charts any time soon, but this batch of songs contains some of his better melodies in many years.

The songs are decent, the singing is stunning.

Old Ideas, however, succeeds in largely keeping the music subservient, buoyant enough to keep things moving but not distracting any attention from the lyrics, the true star of the show.

this album could have been much greater if it didnt have a gospel agenda