Anyone attempting a new tribute album to Canadian poet/author/songwriter icon
Leonard Cohen
faces several daunting difficulties, not the least of which is that it's already been done well twice. The "adult" music scene was covered off definitively as far back as 1986 with
Jennifer Warnes
's
Famous Blue Raincoat
, on which she channeled the spirit of
Cohen
in uncannily appealing fashion (a bout of divine inspiration she has not equaled for her own work).
personally endorsed these sessions, duetting with
Warnes
on the epic "Joan of Arc." The "alternative" music scene got its licks in with 1991's
I'm Your Fan
, where poet/musician peers like
John Cale
teamed with such younger acolytes as
Nick Cave
,
the Pixies
, and
R.E.M
. to suffer
's pain as if embodying a collective son for a surrogate holy father.
Tower of Song
strikes one as a venture likely devised by the Marketing Department, rather than those elitist projects with artists who actually share an affinity for
's work. To be blunt, this 13-strong "tribute" is best described as a total train wreck. Most of the renditions are notable only for their astounding lack of subtlety. Big-name engines barrel down the track, horns blaring, with no regard for such warning signals as color, shade, contrast, tone, definition. A complete derailment, because what they've all fatally missed is the poetry of
's lyrics. ~ Roch Parisien