Discography of Leonard Cohen

The discography of Leonard Cohen, a Canadian poet and songwriter , includes 14 studio albums, 8 live albums, 5 compilations, 43 singles and 7 video clips. All musician albums were released by Columbia Records .

Leonard Cohen English Leonard cohen
Studio albums	fourteen
Live albums	8
Collections	5
Mini Albums	one
Singles	43
Video albums	5
Video clips	7
Box sets	3
Guest Artist	9
Other	3

Leonard Cohen began his creative work in the field of fiction, having written two novels and five collections of poetry, which brought him the glory of the iconic figure of the Canadian bit movement ^[2] . At the age of 32, he found writing songs more profitable than creating poetry and prose - that is how the Canadian’s musical career began ^[3] .

He released half of his studio albums in the second half of the 1960s and 1970s. The early records Songs of Leonard Cohen , Songs from a Room and Songs of Love and Hate were records of folk music, without instrumental abundance and with characteristic raw sound, due to which their artist became known as a bard and troubadour ^[4] . However, already in the album New Skin for the Old Ceremony, Cohen used a variety of strings and percussion instruments, and his next recording, Death of a Ladies' Man, was produced by the inventor of the Wall of Sound technique Phil Spector ^[4] .

In the 1980s, Various Positions and I'm Your Man albums were released, in which the musician actively experimented with the synthesizer and began using female backing vocals . The reaction of Columbia Records to Cohen's new hobbies was mixed - for a long time the label's management refused to release Various Positions , considering the record unsuccessful ^[5] .

In the early 1990s, the poet suffered from severe depression, took drugs, could not do without cigarettes and alcohol ^{[3] [6]} . He released only one album - The Future , which became one of Leonard's most successful works ^[5] . In the middle of the decade, the performer retired to a mountain monastery in the Los Angeles area , where he began to practice Zen and received the name Jikan ^{[3] [7]} . In the first half of the 2000s, two new records were released - Ten New Songs and Dear Heather , the texts of which were written by Cohen in the meditation hall at the monastery ^[4] .

Soon, the Canadian musician was forced to end his solitude in order to improve his financial situation - several million dollars were discovered lost, which his former manager Kelly Lynch removed from Cohen’s account fraudulently ^[7] . In 2008, the performer went on a many-year tour, which, with small interruptions, continued until his death in 2016, and in 2012 released the album Old Ideas , which became his most commercially successful work and received the Canadian Juno Prize - an analogue American " Grammy " ^{[6] [8]} .

September 22, 2014 - the day after the 80th anniversary of the poet - the album Popular Problems ("Popular Problems") was released. Despite his venerable age, Leonard began work on new material, which he ironically dubbed Unpopular Solutions ("Unpopular Solutions") ^[9] . The musician presented his first song, “You Want It Darker,” on his 82nd birthday, and the album of the same name was released a month later. At a press conference on the occasion, Cohen denied rumors of health problems and told the audience that he was going to live forever. Two weeks later, he died ^[10] .

Leonard Cohen is known for his meticulous approach to songwriting, he rewrote the text of The Future dozens of times, worked on Hallelujah for five years, and thirteen as many as In My Secret Life ^{[3] [5]} . The themes of the poet's work - love and sex, soul and death - are eternal life questions ^[11] .