Leonard Cohen’s Son Announces Posthumous Album

Fans can expect a posthumous Leonard Cohen album in the near future, as revealed by the late singer-songwriter’s son and producer, Adam Cohen, during an interview with Canadian radio station CBC.

Cohen, an all-time songwriter, poet and novelist, died in 2016 at age 82. This was just three weeks after his final album in life, You Want it Darker, also produced by his son.

“I was tasked with finishing a few more songs of his that we started together on the last album, so his voice is literally still in my life. It’s a bizarre and delicious entanglement,” Adam Cohen told CBC. “To make a long story short, I believe that there are some really beautiful new songs of Leonard Cohen that no one’s heard that are at some point going to come out.” 

While You Want It Darker was largely a reflective composition tasked with the concept of death, the forthcoming tracks are expected to closely draw on themes of Cohen’s older works and return to a more “mytho-romantic” tone.

“How wonderful that these songs exist, that I’m going to bring them and see them to completion, not just for me because I’m part of the family business, but for all the people out there who are going to hopefully delight in hearing his language, that inimitable contribution of his,” said Adam Cohen. “You know, there are these songs that exist that he wanted finished, these incredible powerful readings that were set to music … It’s going to surprise and delight.”

The full CBC interview will air on Monday, featuring a discussion of both the album and of the late Leonard Cohen’s forthcoming book of poetry, The Flame, out on Oct. 2. In the meantime, check out Paste’s ranking of the 20 best Leonard Cohen songs and listen to a 1988 Cohen performance from the Paste archives below.