The Hand Tank Drum

United State Of Ambience (1994). The first of the United State of Ambience series probably features a more stylistically diverse collection of tracks than either of the follow-ups. In fact, at many times the collection seems to veer off into the worldbeat genre, where sampled chants and hand drums take the place of synth pads and computerized sound effects. Other times, it hovers perilously close to new age. The compilation was released in 1994, when electronica was still a very new genre - and it shows. Both the Eastern-influenced "Goa: Season of the Monsoon" and the uplifting "Creation" are underscored with fairly up-tempo drum tracks - something you would never find on a more recent ambient work…

Leonard Cohen's Popular Problems is an uncharacteristically quick follow-up to 2012's Old Ideas. That record, cut in the aftermath of a multi-year tour, revitalized him as a recording artist. Producer Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Bryan Ferry) serves as co-writer on all but one tune on Popular Problems…

Leonard Cohen's Popular Problems is an uncharacteristically quick follow-up to 2012's Old Ideas. That record, cut in the aftermath of a multi-year tour, revitalized him as a recording artist. Producer Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Bryan Ferry) serves as co-writer on all but one tune on Popular Problems. While Cohen's sound has revolved around keyboards since 1988's I'm Your Man, Leonard gets that the real power in the songwriter's lyrics are best relayed through his own own simple melodies. Everything here – keys, female backing chorus, acoustic instrumentation, etc. – is in their service. As always, Cohen's songs – delivered in his deepest earth rasp – offer protagonists who are ambivalent spiritual seekers, lusty, commitment-phobic lovers, and jaded, untrusting/untrustworthy world citizens.