I'm Your Man

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ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 8   Total Length: 40:34

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Sam Adams

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Sam Adams writes for the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Onion A.V. Club, Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, Cowbell and the Philadelphia Ci...more »

06.30.09
Leonard Cohen, I’m Your Man
1988 | Label: Columbia

I'm Your Man is Cohen's shortest album, and some of its '80s production flourishes haven't dated well. (Just listening to the Miami Vice-ish opening bars of “First We Take Manhattan.”) But it's hard to quarrel with the songs themselves: the acid, ominous “Everybody Knows,” the lilting “Take This Waltz.” It's also the album on which Cohen discovers his sense of humor. On “Tower of Song,” he pokes fun at the image of the tortured singer toiling away in his garrett, following a one-sided conversation with the ghost of Hank Williams with a crude one-finger piano solo. His writing is looser as well, the rhythms more free-swinging. Where many songwriters'careers effectively wind down in middle age, Cohen sounds as if he's just warming up.

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Poetic Genius

pundragon

I was raised on a steady diet of Rock, Punk, and Outlaw Country so who woulda thunk it that one of my favorite albums of all-time would be from an 80-year-old Jewish Crooner? Sometimes a song creeps into your life and becomes a staple in your music collection. Often we don't remember the first time we heard it. But at other times a song can mark a period in your life right down to the very second. Like when you fall in love or when you go someplace special. Well, Leonard Cohen marks a point in my life that I will never forget. He did it with the song "Everybody Knows". I first heard it on the soundtrack to the movie "Pump Up The Volume" starring Christian Slater. The meaning is personal but when you hear the song you can figure it out. Today my favorite song is "I'm Your Man" and for a very different reason. But you can hardly go wrong with anything written or sung by Leonard Cohen. He is a Poetic Genius and he's your man!

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Sounds Great

MMitch59

A few classics and some really nice album cuts make for a very nice album. Yeah but Jazz Police is either hysterical or awful, but with MP3s its easy to edit out. the rest is great.

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Production

Ynyr

Why don't people complain about the "production" of other decades? Does anyone really know what "production" is? How can it be said that something that sounds like Miami Vice soundtrack work is a problem?

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I don't get it

martyyu

I hate the production, I hate his talk/singing, which makes it hard to appreciate the songwriting he's known for. I'll stick with his first album.

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Everybody knows the dice are loaded

ZGreen

Half-way brilliant. Some of his best songs (I'm Your Man, ahem) and worst... Jazz Police. Yikes.

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some of his best lyrics.

LeftEar

Yes, the production does seem more overwrought than most Cohen albums, but it suits some of Leonard's most dramatic music. A fine album, even if it's not his Zen-minimalist style (which is also wonderful).

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Cheesy production, great songs

Yowzer

The first time I heard Tower of Song, I was amused by the rinky tink casio sounds and thrilled by the humor and humanity of the lyric. This whole album is like that. I can't imagine it any other way, so for me: perfect!

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Stuck in the 80's??

techtrainer

The sound is sooo 1980's with the synthesizers and electronic beats. Yet in spite of that, it soars. Such is the work of a master. Great album.

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What treat.

geoffreylee

Saw him at Coachella and was amazed at his performance. This one is good deal here.

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They Say All Media Guide

A stunningly sophisticated leap into modern musical textures, I’m Your Man re-establishes Leonard Cohen’s mastery. Against a backdrop of keyboards and propulsive rhythms, Cohen surveys the global landscape with a precise, unflinching eye: the opening “First We Take Manhattan” is an ominous fantasy of commercial success bundled in crypto-fascist imagery, while the remarkable “Everybody Knows” is a cynical catalog of the land mines littering the surface of love in the age of AIDS. – Jason Ankeny

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