You Want It Darker
The title song of his last album: Cohen's lyrics, a cantor and a synagogue choir.
Leonard Cohen, from You Want It Darker (2016)
- Written by
- Leonard Cohen, Patrick Leonard
- Released
- 2016
- Length
- 4:44
- Album
- You Want It Darker
The lyrics are Cohen's and the music is Patrick Leonard's. Adam Cohen and Leonard produced it, with Cantor Gideon Zelermyer and the Shaar Hashomayim Choir. It was released on 21 September 2016, Cohen's 82nd birthday. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis called it a menacing critique of religion.
It won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 2018. The choir was sampled in James Blake's "Death of Love", and Iggy Pop covered the song on the 2022 tribute album Here It Is. In 2016 it reached number 22 on the US Hot Rock and Alternative chart, number 27 in Switzerland, number 29 in Flanders and number 73 on the Canadian Hot 100.
Pitchfork's Stacey Anderson noted that Cohen chants "Hineni" three times as the choir drops out, a Hebrew cry of readiness.
Covers and versions
- Iggy Pop (2022) On the Here It Is tribute album.
More songs by Leonard Cohen
Suzanne, So Long, Marianne, Famous Blue Raincoat, Hallelujah, Everybody Knows, Bird on the Wire, Joan of Arc, Who by Fire, Dance Me to the End of Love, First We Take Manhattan, Tower of Song
Sources
- You Want It Darker (song), Wikipedia
- You Want It Darker, Wikipedia
- Leonard Cohen: You Want It Darker, Pitchfork (2016-10-24)