The Future is one of the most popular Leonard Cohen recordings. It's his essential film-score album. Almost all its songs appear in Hollywood films. Relatively accessible, it contains everything from gospel-choruses (title track) to synthesizer ballads (Waiting for the Miracle), to pop-country (Closing Time), to marching band rhythms (Democracy). While not his most commercially successful album internationally, it's one of his most musically diverse outings. However, it was one of his biggest chart successes in his native Canada, where Closing Time & The Future were both Top 40. Cohen, whose singing voice is famously an acquired taste, won the '92 Juno Award for Best Male Vocalist. In his acceptance speech, he quipped that "only in Canada could I win a Best Vocalist award". The Future was his last album produced entirely in analog, then digitised after mixdown. Its working titles were Busted (after a line from Closing Time) & Be for Real. His then-girlfriend, actress Rebecca De Mornay, coproduced Anthem. Tacoma Trailer is one of two instrumentals in the Cohen catalog. The other is Improvisation from Live Songs. The album is silver in the UK & double-platinum in Canada. Almost 60 minutes, it was his longest album to date. "The Future" – 6:41 "Waiting for the Miracle" (Cohen, Sharon Robinson) – 7:42 "Be for Real" (Frederick Knight) – 4:32 "Closing Time"– 6:00 "Anthem" – 6:09 "Democracy" – 7:13 "Light as the Breeze" – 7:17 "Always" (Irving Berlin) – 8:04 "Tacoma Trailer" – 5:57
Author
Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. The 1970s were a musically restless period in which his influences broadened to encompass pop, cabaret, and world music. Since the 1980s he has typically sung in lower registers (bass baritone, sometimes bass), with accompaniment from electronic synthesizers and female backing singers. His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sexuality, and complex interpersonal relationships. Cohen's songs and poetry have influenced many other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters".
