Leonard Cohen
photo by Kezban Özcan

Leonard Cohen posthumous LP ft. mems of Arcade Fire, The National, Feist coming

The legendary Leonard Cohen passed away almost three years ago, and today a posthumous album of previously unreleased music has been announced. It’s called Thanks for the Dance, and a press release says it’s “not a commemorative collection of B sides and outtakes, but an unexpected harvest of new songs, exciting and vital, a continuation of the master’s final work.” Leonard had went out with his career on a very high note with You Want It Darker, which was one of the best albums of 2016, so the idea that he left behind even more music around the same time is very exciting.

The album also features some very cool guest musicians, thanks in part to Leonard’s son Adam Cohen, who also produced You Want It Darker. Leonard had asked Adam to bring the Thanks for the Dance songs to completion, and Adam did so all around the world, including at Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner’s PEOPLE Festival in Berlin, where Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, The National’s Bryce Dessner, s t a r g a z e, and others contributed instrumentation, and Feist and Damien Rice contributed vocals. The album also features contributions from Beck, Daniel Lanois, Patrick Watson, Leonard’s former bandmate Javier Mas (playing Leonard’s own guitar), and more.

The first song to be shared from the album is “The Goal,” which is cut from a similar dark and creep cloth to You Want It Darker, with Leonard’s baritone sounding truly ominous. Listen and check out the tracklist below.

Tracklist
1. Happens to the Heart
2. Moving On
3. The Night of Santiago
4. Thanks for the Dance
5. It’s Torn
6. The Goal
7. Puppets
8. The Hills
9. Listen to the Hummingbird