Leonard Cohen: Popular Problems versie op vinyl LP/CD in standaard editie. Deze specifieke uitgave werd uitgebracht in Europa bij uitgeverij Columbia in samenwerking met Sony Music op 7. oktober 2014.

Leonard Cohen celebrates his 80th birthday with new album "Popular Problems" Happy Birthday, Lenny. On the day of his 80th birthday (two days before, to be exact), Leonard Cohen releases his 13th studio album, "Popular Problems," on which Patrick Leonard once again helped him with songwriting and as producer. The new album was recorded and mixed by Jesse E. Chain. As on "Old Ideas," the new CD "Popular Problems" features a sedate, summarizing Leonard Cohen who convinces with deep lyrics and imaginatively arranged, musically diverse songs. The opener "Slow", whose title says it all, sets the tone from the beginning of the album: Leonard Cohen will be slowing down ("I'm slowing down my tune ..."). Many of the songs are spoken rather than sung. Thanks to a superbly mixed recording, Cohen's voice, which gets deeper and deeper, goes straight from the ear to the heart. Leonard Cohen still has a lot to say about "Popular Problems." His ending isn't always positive; there's more of a laconic-melancholy mood running through the album, which contains nine songs. On the slow country song "You Got Me Singing," Cohen throws the singing overboard and sums it up with "Even though it all looks grim, You got me singing the Hallelujah Hymn" - an allusion to his much-overused song. He is probably very surprised that, given the world around him, so many people like to sing Hallelujah. For Leonard Cohen, music is a lifeline in a world he sees as critically as ever. With "Popular Problems" he gives himself and us a sound album that provides musical solace despite all the melancholy of the lyrics. Review: "Musically, the old master of sonic singing relies entirely on slowing down, as the first line of opener 'Slow' points out: 'I'm slowing down my melody'" (Good Times, December 2014/January 2015) "If 'Old Ideas' was a masterpiece two years ago, Cohen is even better, a crystal-clear sound that's incredibly authentic to musical effect." (Stereo Play, November 2014) "No Cohen album has ever exuded such a sense of well-being." (Stereo, December 2014) "Pure existentialism: ominous, melancholic, wannabe contemplative in musical language between blues and folk, punchy in philosophical statement: gripping deep in the listener's soul." (Audio, December 2014)

Album valt binnen het genre Pop, Folk, World, & Country en Folk Rock. 180g.