Open Culture:

Perhaps no one since Thomas Hardy has matched Leonard Cohen in the dogged persistence of literary bleakness.

Cohen’s expressions of despair—and of reverence, defiance, love, hatred, and lust—speak across generations, telling truths few of us confess but, just maybe, everybody knows.

For many, Cohen will be an acquired taste but he’s always been one of my favorite songwriters, right up there with Prince. But where Prince had a love of life and sensuality to it, Cohen would be described as depressing (not by me though). But I still love listening to him.