Tower of Song: Songs of Leonard Cohen

Out of print in the U.S.! Excellent collection of songs penned by Leonard Cohen and reinterpreted by some of the finest musicians, past and present, creating a timeless batch of great songs and performances. The cast of great artists include Don Henley, Elton John, Bono, Willie Nelson, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos, Sting & the Chieftains, Martin L. Gore and many others. 13 tracks featuring favorites like 'Famous Blue Raincoat', 'Suzanne', 'I'm Your Main' and more. Universal.

If ever an artist deserved the tribute-album treatment, it's Leonard Cohen, an intermittently fascinating songwriter but perhaps the worst singer to ever release more than one major-label album. Cohen has never written a song which couldn't be improved by someone else singing it, and it's no coincidence that he's been the subject of three tribute albums. The latest is Tower of Song, which turns Cohen's work over to such middle-brow pop stars as Don Henley, Billy Joel, and Suzanne Vega. The results from this new project are mixed. Melodramatic, angst-ridden vocals by Tori Amos ("Famous Blue Raincoat") and Peter Gabriel ("Suzanne") emphasize Cohen's narcissism and purple poetry. On the other hand, Elton John delivers a delightfully campy, irreverent reading of "I'm Your Man," and Sting joins the Chieftains for a nicely understated, Celtic-folk arrangement of "Sisters of Mercy." --Geoffrey Himes