I'm not usually a fan of live albums. They often contain little more than badly recorded, inferior versions of tracks you probably already own. So this live collection comes as a welcome exception to the rule.

Simply put, this album is stunning. It contains many of Leonard Cohen's best loved songs, all played to perfection by world-class musicians and recorded with pin-drop clarity. The songs were recorded on various tours during the 80s and early 90s but the album hangs together as if they were all recorded on the same night.

A Way of Life presents the role of the Tibetan Book of the Dead among the traditional Tibetan Buddhist communities of Ladakh. Filmed in the spectacular heart of the Himalayas where a rich Buddhist culture still survives, cameras document the whole process of the death rituals with readings from the Book of the Dead.

Canadian poet Leonard Cohen sings with great weight and authority and his lyrics are among the most elegant and scripted of the rock era. This collection is culled from his past three albums (1988's I'm Your Man, 1992's The Future, and 1994's Cohen Live) and shows a man whose voice has deepened to the point of grim, foreboding death with lyrics sharpened to masterful precision. The arrangements are deliberately clunky--the cheese- whiz female back-ups lend unusual tension bordering on parody--but the sentiments are for real. Two previously unreleased cuts, "Never Any Good" and the non-event, "The Great Event" suggest his well is currently dry. But the unrelenting bleakness of "The Future" and uneasy celebration of "Democracy" are among the past decade's most challenging pop works. --Rob O'Connor

If ever an artist deserved the tribute-album treatment, it's Leonard Cohen, an intermittently fascinating songwriter but perhaps the worst singer to ever release more than one major-label album. Cohen has never written a song which couldn't be improved by someone else singing it, and it's no coincidence that he's been the subject of three tribute albums. The latest is Tower of Song, which turns Cohen's work over to such middle-brow pop stars as Don Henley, Billy Joel, and Suzanne Vega. The results from this new project are mixed. Melodramatic, angst-ridden vocals by Tori Amos ("Famous Blue Raincoat") and Peter Gabriel ("Suzanne") emphasize Cohen's narcissism and purple poetry. On the other hand, Elton John delivers a delightfully campy, irreverent reading of "I'm Your Man," and Sting joins the Chieftains for a nicely understated, Celtic-folk arrangement of "Sisters of Mercy." --Geoffrey Himes (from amazon) --

If ever an artist deserved the tribute-album treatment, it's Leonard Cohen, an intermittently fascinating songwriter but perhaps the worst singer to ever release more than one major-label album. Cohen has never written a song which couldn't be improved by someone else singing it, and it's no coincidence that he's been the subject of three tribute albums. The latest is Tower of Song, which turns Cohen's work over to such middle-brow pop stars as Don Henley, Billy Joel, and Suzanne Vega. The results from this new project are mixed. Melodramatic, angst-ridden vocals by Tori Amos ("Famous Blue Raincoat") and Peter Gabriel ("Suzanne") emphasize Cohen's narcissism and purple poetry. On the other hand, Elton John delivers a delightfully campy, irreverent reading of "I'm Your Man," and Sting joins the Chieftains for a nicely understated, Celtic-folk arrangement of "Sisters of Mercy." --Geoffrey Himes (from amazon) --

The Complete Studio Albums Collection contains all 11 of Leonard Cohen's remastered studio albums packaged in special a lift-off box along with a lavish 36-page booklet including all discographical annotations and recording information, as well as a brilliant 1,300-word essay by Pico Iyer.

Honored Artist Doug Bodak talks about classical guitar.