The Word Magazine: June Now Hear This! CD

"Hallelujah!" proclaims the cover of the June issue of The Word. "Thank Heaven For Leonard Cohen".

The interview inside is a hard-hitting attack piece against Cohen.

Not. I meant not a hard-hitting attack piece, of course. Cohen discusses his life and work. Among his recent projects: a poetry and art book called Book of Longing and writing and producing an album for singer Anjani Thomas. A bit of Blue Alert's title track is streaming at his website.

Cohen is also working on an album of his own. He says he has to work now because his life savings were taken from $5 million to $150,000 by his manager, an allegation she denies. The Word cites this Macleans article as presenting "the most detailed account" of the situation.

Cohen's much-talked-about these days, partly due to the documentary about him "I'm Your Man", opening June 21.

In the film, a variety of artists, including Bono, give him props. Bono calls him "the original rapper" and "a sexy man who made sexy music, who made music asking questions about God and girls and everything."

Leonard Cohen - Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye (from Songs of Leonard Cohen)

you know my love goes with you as your love stays with me,
it's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea,
but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.

The Word June 2006 Now Hear This! CD Track Listing:


1. Breaks Co-Op - Settle Down (from The Sound Inside) Covers a familiar theme - the thin line between love and hate - with some original, provocative lyrics ("it seems the more you suffer too/the more I settle down". Add the bop-along, fresh-sounding, genre-crossing music and you're good to go. It's wrong and right, like love and using cliches.
2. Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Toumani
3. Grandaddy - Rear View Mirror (from Just Like The Fambly Cat) Sweeping, rocking, excellent.
4. Shrift - Floating City (from Lost In A Moment) Is it electronica? Is it trip-hop? Yes and yes. It's beautiful and grows increasingly ethereal but never wispy.
5. Josh Ritter - Girl In The War
6. Gledhill - Resurrect Me
7. Roddy Frame - Marble Arch
8. Midlake - Bandits
9. Tunng - Woodcat
10. Jolie Holland - Crush in the Ghetto (from Springtime Can Kill You) Pretty, sweet alt-pop song about love, without the hate part.
11. Declan O'Rourke - No Brakes
12. Juana Molina - Yo No
13. Jeffrey Foucault - Ghost Repeater
14. Richard James - I Wait for Your Love
15. The Waterboys - Sweet Thing