Songs from a Room

Sessions began in Hollywood in May 1968 under David Crosby and moved to Nashville in the fall with Johnston producing. Johnston and Cohen flew to France to overdub the uncredited French backing vocals on The Partisan.

It reached number 2 in Britain, number 63 in the United States and number 12 in the Netherlands, and went gold in Canada. Rolling Stone's Alec Dubro was dismissive of the singing in 1969, but Pitchfork rated it 8.8 in 2007.

Johnston, best known for producing Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Simon and Garfunkel, offered the spartan sound Cohen wanted after the disputes with Simon. Cohen moved from the Chelsea Hotel to a farm near Franklin, Tennessee, about 30 miles from Nashville, and recorded demos there. He told Mojo in 2001 that the record was very stark. Johnston described it as a painting rather than a record and himself as a musical bodyguard.

The Partisan is Cohen's version of La Complainte du partisan by Emmanuel d'Astier and Anna Marly, with English words by Hy Zaret. The single The Old Revolution did not chart. The cover is a black-and-white photo of Cohen, and the back cover shows Marianne Ihlen at a typewriter on Hydra. A remaster in February 2007 added two bonus tracks produced by David Crosby. The biographer Anthony Reynolds called the album the hangover of the morning after the debut, while the AllMusic critic Mark Deming found it something of a letdown but said its strongest moments convey a naked intimacy.