It’s taken me four months to write up, but as usual, I’ve made a Spotify mixtape of my favourite music (and, this year, spoken word), both new and old, that I discovered last year.
If you like something you hear, please follow the artist on social media, buy their music and/or go and see they live, because Spotify pays diddly squat.
1. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
A hero. Cohen wrote this song (with Patrick Leonard) for his final album, speaking pretty directly about his own mortality and embracing his Jewishness. His son Adam Cohen was the producer and the Shaar Hashomayim Choir from the synagogue of that name in Montreal feature. Of the choir he wrote, ‘ Even as a boy I loved their singing. It is what made compulsory synagogue attendance enjoyable. I’ve wanted to work with the cantor and the choir for a long time. The touring years interrupted this intention. On a secondary but still urgent note, there are times when you want to show the flag, when you want to indicate that there is nourishment to be had from this culture, that it is not entirely irrelevant to the present situation, that it » Continue Reading.
