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Dear Heather | 
| Artist: Leonard Cohen
Label: Sony / Bmg Japan
Category: Music
List Price: $45.98
Buy New: $25.14
You Save: $20.84 (45%)
New (10) Used (3) from $25.14
Rating:  70 reviews
Sales Rank: 610824
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 4547366018233
ASIN: B000666WFK
Release Date: December 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Go No More A-Roving - Leonard Cohen, Sharon Robinson | | • | Because Of | | • | Letters - Leonard Cohen, Sharon Robinson | | • | Undertow | | • | Morning Glory | | • | On That Day | | • | Villanelle for Our Time | | • | There for You - Leonard Cohen, Sharon Robinson | | • | Dear Heather | | • | Nightingale | | • | To a Teacher | | • | Faith | | • | Tennessee Waltz [Live] |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Leonard Cohen must be the envy of countless singer-songwriters. Who else has been cozily buffered from the ravages of pop music than this eminent but never particularly prominent Canadian wordsmith? Nearing four decades as a recording artist, Cohen has never left his original label, despite failing to ever register anything resembling a commercial hit. Long ago shed of the "new Dylan" trappings that greeted his first recordings, Cohen now cushions his carefully wrought lyrics in smooth keyboard-and-vocal-heavy arrangements that owe far more to MOR pop and cabaret then folk-rock. His words and delivery have become more nuanced and playful as he's grayed. Listen to the sexy self-deprecation of "Because of" ("Because of a few songs/ Wherein I spoke of their mystery/ Women have been/ Exceptionally kind in my old age") or the weary resolve of his 9-11 statement, "On That Day" ("Did you go crazy or did you report/ On that day…they wounded New York?"). Dear Heather, likes its creator, is at once new and old, familiar and fresh. --Steven Stolder
Album Description
Japanese pressing of the acclaimed singer/songwriter's 2004 album, includes the exclusive live version of 'Tennessee Waltz'. Sony.
Album Details
Includes Exclusive Live Version of "Tennessee Waltz".
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| Customer Reviews: Read 65 more reviews...
 What's The Frequency, Leonard? November 29, 2004
Jason Stein (Chula Vista, CA United States)
70 out of 80 found this review helpful
What hogwash the few reviewers have given this album. I own all 11 cds from him and "Dear Heather" is definitely above such lows as 1979's "Recent Songs" or 1977's "Death Of A Ladies Man". Is it as sharp as his first three albums? No. Is it as strong as "I'm Your Man" or "The Future"? No. But it definitely has its place in his canon of work.
Just keep in mind that before all these bands like Radiohead, Keane, Travis, Snow Patrol, etc. There was Leonard Cohen (even before The Cure). Cohen is virtually without peer at 70 years of age. There are some great songs on "Dear Heather" like "Go No More A-Roving", "Because Of", "The Letters", "Morning Glory", "Villanelle For Our Time", "Dear Heather" and "Nightingale". In fact, "The Letters" and "Villanelle" are two of his finest works. "Dear Heather" is a strange, almost Laurie Anderson-like piece of song that shows, even at 70, Cohen is still willing to take musical risks.
"Dear Heather" is an unusual mix of modern engineering with an antiquated musical feel (some of the songs are waltzes) and vintage instrumentation (I believe he uses the mouth harp on two different songs!)
Overall, I was pleased with this album more than 2001's "Ten New Songs". This one has more musical variety. I find it strange that the few Cohen reviews here are very mixed (as if this album was a radical departure or something?!!) Ridiculous. If you are a Cohen fan, you should buy this and add it to your collection.
 The Elder of Dark Songs Returns with Hope November 2, 2004
Juan Mobili (Valley Cottage, NY USA)
74 out of 85 found this review helpful
Reviewer: Juan Mobili After 2001's Ten New Songs, Cohen returns with a stunning new album, which clearly show than certain artists in their seventies, thankfully, are far from done with honing in their well-crafted wisdom.
Unlike his last album, Sharon Robinson's production allows Cohen's voice to carry the heft of these poems, whether sung or spoken. Actually, where Ten New Songs was more a collaboration than Leonard's solo album, Dear Heather finds her providing great vocals -specially in the The Letters- and more measured in the use of female back-up singers.
As far as I'm concerned, this is the work of a man who has meditated on mortality and found peace and reasons for gratitude, and yet remains unsentimental although more tender about his life. Here, Cohen's poignant and breathtaking poetry achieves a clarity only matched by its courage.
The first two examples which come to mind are Because Of ("Because of a few songs / Wherein I spoke of their mystery, / Women have been / Exceptionally kind / to my old age."), and The Letters (The wounded forms appear: / The loss, the full extent; / And simple kindness here, / The solitude of strength"), which are gorgeous expressions of a man settling accounts, whether thay may need to be apologies or gratitude.
Ultimately, this album shows more hope than somberness. Although Cohen could be called an elder of the dark and brooding song, he's, beneath it all, struck by beauty and loyal to a richer soul. This is an album about a vibrant life bared for examination, and the lesson is love, love above all else.
As he says in Villanelle For Our Time, a Frank Scott poem he musicalized:
"From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart."
From the sublime to the heavenly. October 26, 2004
WJL (Christchurch New Zealand)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I do not wish to comment on or intellectualise about Leonard's lyrics. Myriad attempts are constantly made to deconstruct Leonard's work and my penny's worth would be both futile and pointless. I can only say that to me it does not matter what Leonard writes, how arcane, cryptic or esoteric, he communicates to me in some magical way. I may be unable to consciously decipher what it is of which Leonard speaks, but the words evoke a deep emotional response in me. What is this magic that he wroughts?
On to simpler matters, it is nice to hear real instruments edge in again on a Cohen album. And while this is not intended as a reflection on Sharon Robinson or her considerable talent and ability, to my ear Anjani Thomas is a much finer partner to Leonard. Her voice is sweeter, her piano flourishes and her arrangements more ethereal and attractive. Leonard meanwhile fades further into the background, his voice reaching ever more sepulchral depths. Perhaps on the next album he will be audible only to elephants?
Time will tell if the songs are strong enough to cement themselves into our psyches like the ubiquitous entries from the classic Cohen oeuvre. But I personally have been unable to remove Undertow from my head for days now. Anjani's pure and moving lead vocal backed by Leonard's quiet rumble is achingly beautiful.
Dear Heather has faults, for certain. But listening to it I feel that aforementioned Cohen magic wash over me. There is something in Leonard's ragged croak - gentleness, wisdom, I really don't know - that grips me and makes me listen in awe. He speaks to us from a different, more heavenly place. There is the gentle pace, the delicate and original arrangements, the angelic voices of Sharon and (especially) Anjani, the timelessness and serenity of the sound. Perfect in its imperfection, a rare treat in today's programmed world of packaged pop tarts and angry tuneless rappers, I cannot rate Dear Heather less than 5 stars.
Wow!! November 5, 2004
K. M. di Passero (Los Angeles, CA United States)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
After reading the reviews for this album, I was initially concerned due to thier polarized nature. However, on my first "hearing" of this album I was astonished. I felt such strengh in the words, and such imagery envoked by the music - everything from the cold and tortured world of a David Lynch film, to the warm inviting feel of a smoky jazz club. The words reveal so much that those like myself are simply unable to convey - yet understand so vivedly when we hear them. This is truely a masterpiece - transcending genre (as is usually the case with Leonard Cohen), while at the same time remaining an accurate reflection of humanity.
Thanks Leonard October 30, 2004
Dave Tutin (New York)
21 out of 25 found this review helpful
Thanks Leonard for a lifetime of great writing...a lifetime of inspired songs.
I have enjoyed Mr Cohen since his first album back in the sixties, so while I am not as old as he is I am old enough to appreciate the true beauty of Dear Heather.
Even what one reviewer calls the "experimental" title track. It's not experimental. At a certain point in our lives something happens to the way we remember. This song is the perfect encapsulation of how the mind doesn't just remember a moment from our younger days, it fixates on it. It fixates on the details. It reaches what is almost desperation in trying to bring that moment back to life. When, towards the end of
the song Dear Heather, Leonard starts spelling out the words, he captures the yearning of the older heart for the younger moment with total accuracy. As always.
Leonard is an artist to be enjoyed in total. Don't just buy Dear Heather, buy every Cohen album you don't already own. And experience a journey like no other in modern music. A journey of discovery, of incredible beauty and disarming honesty.
And when you've heard all the music there's still the poetry and novels. The Energy of Slaves is still one of the most powerful little books, if you can find a copy.
Rumor has it there's the Book Of Longing still to come...so I, like many others, hope we have not heard the last from Leonard.
Even if this is the last time that beautfiul voice breaks into song it doesn't matter. Because if you listen to Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye from his first album it's as eloquent today as it was the day I first heard it. With, as I said at the start, a lifetime of great songs between it and Dear Heather.
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