Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
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critics' view

The unique events surrounding its release make it virtually impossible to know how or where to rank You Want It Darker among Cohen’s back catalogue, beyond the easy statement that, as with 2014’s Popular Problems, it’s obvious his powers hadn’t been dimmed by time; that this album sounds like such a final farewell that it’s difficult to see where he’d have gone next; that, he’d probably have still pulled it off, because he usually did. More pertinent, perhaps, would be to acknowledge that while there was always a good chance this was supposed to be ‘the end’, the album doesn’t end with a full stop but instead loops back to the near-beginning. On the final track, he offers up a string reprise of ‘Treaty’, allowing the start and finish lines to overlap. It feels like the best possible ending: a reassurance that, come what may, there’ll always be time to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

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The Quietus is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. The Quietus primarily features writings on music and film, as well as interviews with a wide range of notable artists and musicians. The magazine also occasionally includes pieces on literature, graphic novels, architecture, and TV series. The website is edited by John Doran, who claims that it caters for "the intelligent music fan between the age of 21 and, well, 73". Its staff list includes former writers for publications such as Melody Maker, Select, NME and Q, including journalist David Stubbs, BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq, Professor Simon Frith and Simon Price among others.
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