Leonard Cohen
Live in London
(Columbia)

Leonard Cohen’s earlier songs featured a higher-pitched, less jaded Cohen singing about love and loss. Later, as his voice grew gravelly and Tom Waits-esque, he began singing about the decline of western civilization and the pride of man, no doubt influenced by his time in a monastery. I have always wanted to hear him sing some of his older songs in his later style. Finally, I have gotten my wish. “Live in London” spans the songwriter’s whole catalogue, from the widely covered “Bird on a Wire” to the more recent, apocalyptic dirge “The Future.” And it does not disappoint. The musicianship, including touches of mandolin and pedal steel guitar, is beautifully understated. The newer songs on here are played the way I feel they were meant to, not over-produced like on many of the studio versions. —Jonathan Ashley