You Want It Darker

by Leonard Cohen

Type: Album
Released: 21 October 2016
Label: Columbia
Country: Canada
Length: 36:07
Community rating: 3.9/5 from 15 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Released seventeen days before his death, 'You Want It Darker' is Leonard Cohen's profound final statement, a stark meditation on mortality, faith, and the nature of God delivered with his signature gravelly gravitas. Produced by his son Adam Cohen, the album's minimalist and blues-inflected arrangements were recorded in the singer's living room, creating a sound that is both intimate and monumental. The album's spiritual weight is significantly deepened by the inclusion of the cantor and all-male choir from Cohen's childhood synagogue, whose vocals provide a solemn, hymn-like counterpoint to his raw, spoken-word poeticism.

Genres

Descriptors: choral, male-vocals, minimal, bleak, spirituality

Tracklist

Credits

Leonard Cohen - vocals
Athena Andreadis - background vocals on "traveling light"
Bill Bottrell - electric guitar, pedal steel guitar
Michael Chaves - keyboards, bass guitar, drum programming, mixed by
Adam Cohen - classical guitar, producer, photography by [cover photo]
Dana Glover - background vocals on "on the level" and "steer your way"
Alison Krauss - background vocals on "steer your way"
Patrick Leonard - keyboards, organ, piano, bass synthesizer, bass guitar, percussion, drum programming, producer
Rob Humphreys - drums
Brian MacLeod - drums
Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir - roï azoulay, director; cantor gideon zelermyer, vocal soloist
Zac Rae - guitar, classical guitar, mandolin, keyboards, mellotron, celesta, piano, wurlitzer, floor tom, octophone
Howard Bilerman - engineer on "you want it darker" and "it seemed the better way"
Sammy Slabbinck - design [album and booklet]
Dianne V. Lawrence - illustration [hummingbird image]
Kory & Rice, LLP - management
Michelle Rice - management
Robert Kory - management
Stephen Marcussen - mastered by
Kezban Özcan - product manager [executive assistant]