''Popular Problems'' is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

, released on September 19, 2014 in Friday-release countries (such as France and Ireland) and on September 22, 2014 elsewhere.

Overview

Most of the songs were new, though Cohen did debut "Born in Chains" onstage in 2010 and "My Oh My" was played during a soundcheck the same year. The 2010 version of "Born in Chains" differs radically in terms of arrangements and singing compared to the 2014 studio version, and the song itself was first performed as early as 1985, during an (unofficially recorded) soundcheck in Europe. The early version used earlier lyrics set to the music which later become the song "I Can't Forget", released on Cohen's 1988 record '' I'm Your Man''. Through the years, Cohen referred to the song as "Taken Out of Egypt", reciting it on show in 1988, and humming it to the new melody in 2005 documentary ''Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man''. "A Street" was recited by Cohen in 2006, during promotion of his book of poetry '' Book of Longing'', and later printed twice, as "A Street" in the March 2, 2009 issue of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' magazine, and as "Party's Over" in Everyman's Library edition of Cohen's ''Poems and Songs'' in 2011. Both versions include a verse referring to

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. "Nevermind" was published as the poem in 2005 on The Leonard Cohen Files website, and in ''Book of Longing'' in 2006. In 2015, it was used as the opening credits theme of the second season of the

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series ''

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''.

Critical reception

Upon its release the album received uniformly positive reviews from critics, with

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

tallying 26 positive reviews for an aggregate score of 86, designated on the site as "universal acclaim". Thom Jurek of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

wrote that, at 80 years old, "Cohen not only has plenty left in the tank, but is at his most confident and committed" and called it his best album since 1992's '' The Future''. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' gave a moderately positive review, calling Cohen "one of rock’s most profound aphorists" but dismissing the "bouncy country" production of "Did I Ever Love You" as the album's "major misstep".

Neil McCormick Neil McCormick (born 31 March 1961) is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster. He has been the chief music critic for ''The Daily Telegraph'' since 1996, and presented a music interview show for Vintage TV (TV channel), Vintage TV i ...

of ''

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'' called the album "a masterpiece". The album was a shortlisted

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

nominee for Adult Alternative Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2015.

Commercial performance

The album peaked at number one on the

Canadian Albums Chart The ''Billboard'' Canadian Albums is the official record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given ...

, selling 20,000 copies in its first week. In its second week, the album fell to number two behind

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...

's '' Tracks of My Years'', with sales of 10,500. As of January 2015, ''Popular Problems'' has sold 80,000 copies in Canada. In the United States, the album debuted at No. 15 on ''Billboard'' 200, No. 1 on Folk Albums and No. 4 on Top Rock Albums, with 20,000 copies sold. The album has sold 67,000 copies in the US as of May 2015.

Track listing

Written by Leonard Cohen and Patrick Leonard, except where indicated

Personnel

– vocals *James Harrah – guitar *Joe Ayoub – bass *Alexandru Bublitchi – violin *

Patrick Leonard Patrick Ray Leonard (born March 14, 1956) is an American songwriter, keyboardist, film composer, and music producer, best known for his longtime collaboration with Madonna. His work with Madonna includes her albums '' True Blue'' (1986), '' Who ...

– keyboards * Brian MacLeod – drums *Charlean Carmon – backing vocals * Dana Glover – backing vocals * Donna De Lory – backing vocals

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Leonard Cohen albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Patrick Leonard Juno Award for Album of the Year albums