Pretty much universally regarded as Cohen’s worst album, there is something intriguing about the disastrous conceit of pairing a vocally limited folk singer with Wall of Sound producer Phil Spector. Cohen wails like a drunken troubadour determined to strangle his songs at birth, while Spector surrounds him with bells, whistles, choirs, orchestras, rock instruments and quite possibly the kitchen sink. The self-loathing spirit in which Cohen conjured up these songs of failed romance is perhaps best encapsulated by the funkily absurd Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On. Dear Heather (2004). Dell Hid Compliant Mouse Driver Windows 7 Download. Cohen has suggested that his lifelong vulnerability to depression has been gently lifted by his devotion to Buddhist meditation. This might be best considered his Buddhist album, with Cohen boiling his usually extensive lyrics down to almost Zen-like aphorisms, often drily and unmelodiously recited to a gentle, easy-listening cocktail produced by collaborator Sharon Robinson.

There is a mood of quiet wisdom and emotional lightness but it inevitably suggested either a waning of poetic powers or dwindling interest in the song form. Fortunately, subsequent releases proved this not to be the case. Recent Songs (1979). After the overproduced Phil Spector disaster, Cohen returned to the safer ground of understated acoustic folk, albeit adding bold new flourishes of gipsy violin and a Mexican mariachi band.

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Such touches lend the album a beguiling world music flavour, and Cohen sings his songs of longing and regret with sombre seriousness, yet it is an album that might be said to mark the end of Cohen’s first great period, not quite scaling the heights of his early masterpieces, and preceding the stylistic advances he would make in the Eighties. Ten New Songs (2001). There was a nine year gap between Cohen’s late masterpiece The Future (1992) and Ten New Songs, much of that time spent in seclusion at a Buddhist monastery in California. This was a subtle, understated comeback from a man many thought would never record again, co-written and produced by longtime musical associate Sharon Robinson, who played everything and conjured smooth, late-night ambiences for Cohen’s now whispery vocals. There may have been some indication of a lack of confidence or conviction in his reliance on Robinson, and the album doesn’t exude the charismatic engagement and towering intellectual dynamism of his greatest work. Still, it conjures up a seductive mix of thoughtful couplets and gentle melodies.

Songs From A Room (1969). Unhappy with the production on his debut (although I suspect he was alone in that regard) Cohen adopted a stark sound for his second album, focused on his acoustic guitar with just the faintest of backing instruments to accompany his mournful voice.

This is perhaps his most grave and professorial set of songs, from sorrowful Biblical epic The Story of Isaac to the mysterious depiction of frustrated ardour and seduction in Lady Midnight. Opening track, Bird On The Wire, remains among Cohen’s finest works, an anthem of freedom that will ring out as long as there are voices to sing it.

Various Positions (1984). Cohen’s label, Columbia, rejected this album, refusing to release it in the US. Quite astonishing when you consider that it contains one of the most universally beloved songs of all time, Hallelujah, as well as such works of distilled, meditative genius as Dance Me To The End Of Love, If It Be Your Will and The Law. Perhaps record executives were put off by the bleak production of John Lissauer, introducing thin synthetic keyboards to Cohen’s sound for the first time, as well as stark acoustic guitars, Cohen’s deepening vocal gilded subtly by Jennifer Warnes' softening vocals. While flirting with electronica, it is not a very Eighties album, with no hint of gaudiness. This is an album for all time, a work of quiet genius.