Confusing depression with profundity.
3
By Watchful Fan
While there isn't a tradition of Leonard Cohen tribute compilations, there is a lineage. Jennifer Warnes’ "Famous Blue Raincoat" (1987) began the genre, a single singer with her band putting a very specific polish on the songs. Jenny rocked. "I'm Your Fan" (1991) came next, a collection of indie and edgy artists one could imagine actually being Cohen fans, a true potpourri, with each track produced by a different artist and a different band. "Tower of Song" (1995) followed the same pattern, though with A list artists, bringing more star power but less soul to the enterprise.
“Here It Is” turns the model sideways, with the band being the constant and a succession of guest singers. And the band has a very specific and surprisingly limited range, with a sound that can only be described as soft jazz, though performed at a high level and ornamented, sometimes to excess, by the kind of doodling that Bill Frisell, guitarist on this album, has turned into a signature. It's not a bad sound. It's atmospheric and lush and would have been a welcome track or two on "Tower of Song." But it wears out its welcome two or three tracks into "Here It Is." It all sounds the same, and it's not very interesting. Immanuel Wilkins' sax dances around without apparent melodic purpose, and Frisell plays so may heartfelt harmonic arpeggios one is tempted to bite off his index finger at the knuckle.
This leaves it to the parade of guest vocalists to make things interesting and occasionally wake the band up, and a few do. The standout performance here is Mavis Staples’s rendition of “If It Be Your Will” – soulful, aching, a humble supplication to God. Staples could sing accompanied by a leaf blower and people would convert. The band lets Nathaniel Rateliff’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” bloom to a moving peak, rising to the musical moment. Frisell’s instrumental of “Bird on the Wire” is refreshingly straightforward and moving.
One wishes there were more moments like this, but there aren’t. Most of the album is pleasant enough, if soporific. Cohen wasn’t just sad – he was deep. Too many of the artists confuse depression with profundity. Singing as if you have been up for three days doesn't make you sound wise. It makes you sound tired. And let James Taylor re-record “Coming Back to You” in a key that works for him, please? He’s at least a third too low, and it leaches his voice of expression.
The good news is that you can buy the tracks worth having and skip the rest. I'd add Gregory Porter’s fine “Suzanne” to those above and be done with it.
