Editorial Review:

Amazon.com essential recording:
Leonard Cohen's deeply personal first LPs came out at a time when many of his peers were issuing furious, counterculture-inspired rants; he clearly had little interest in sticking with the pack at the time. So it makes a certain kind of contrary sense that Cohen would put out an offbeat topical collection two and a half decades later. The Future is an odd duck of an album; it's also brave, funny, and fascinating. 'Give me back the Berlin Wall / Give me Stalin and St. Paul,' Cohen petitions sardonically in the title track, adding, 'I've seen the future, brother: it is murder.' 'Can't run no more with the lawless crowd / While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud,' he intones in 'Anthem.' In 'Democracy,' he name-checks Tiananmen Square while surveying the United States ('The cradle of the best and of the worst'). Cohen has only improved with age as a vocalist; he sounds like a cross between Mark Knopfler and Barry White. While the polished production takes some getting used to, it's somehow suitable that cooing background vocals and programmed tracks temper these low-boil diatribes. This is, after all, The Future. --Steven Stolder









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Disc 1:

1. The Future
2. Waiting for the Miracle
3. Be for Real - Leonard Cohen, Knight, Frederick [
4. Closing Time
5. Anthem
6. Democracy
7. Light as the Breeze
8. Always - Leonard Cohen, Berlin, Irving
9. Tacoma Trailer

Rating: - * The Future ... Excellent! But, the best pieces are also on "More Best of Leonard Cohen." If you can only purchase one CD, buy "More Best ..." Rating: - * The Future ... The Future being Cohens 1992 release is nothing short of a stroke of genius. It starts out with a bang with the track The future. Cohen is such a talented lyrcist that I consider it to be the perfect mix between poetry and music. His vocals are as solid as ever before. The book-let is very interesting. On the cover we have a bird, a heart and a pair of handcuffs. It contains both lyrics and also a list of who played and what instruments they used. Sharon Robinson once again is collaborating with Cohen and as I written before I think this is a such an amazing combination. Waiting for the Miracle is my favorite track. This track is pure gold! Rating: - * I have seen the future ... For those of you who are concerned about the drift of America over the last several decades, this album is the soundtrack of our country's descent. When Cohen sings, "I have seen the future. It is murder," he is talking about the arc through which we are falling. The poet says what the rest of us somehow sense but can't quite verbalize. Imagine Cohen in 1930s Germany. Except he is talking about us here in America, now, where we are and where we are going. "I have seen the future. It is murder." The rest of the album is pretty good too. "Charlie Manson, the white man dancing." All the way to the White House. Rating: - * leonard gets political ... Its an old one but a good one with lyrics that are as good today as when he wrote them Rating: - * Maybe add a half-star for better times in the past... ... I only liked "Closing Time" and "Anthem" on this CD, and even those are a cut below Leonard's best work. This release gave me the feeling it was made of tracks that were not good enough for earlier albums, and someone decided to put them all one disc and get rid of them. The biggest insult to his fans, however, is to try to cover Irving Berlin's "Always." Both Cohen and Berlin are great songwriters, separated by a generation and a World War and amazing changes in love and courtship and sex customs. Leonard is great at writing relationship lyrics, and so was Irving, but for different planets. Try "Various Positions" and his "Greatest Hits" albums instead of "The Future." This one is just not in the top ranks of his concept releases.