Jennifer Warnes
In the 1960s the relentlessly introspective, dark-toned songs of Leonard Cohen made him a cult figure. He seemed, in fact, on the verge of becoming the American incarnation of Kurt Weill. Such performers as Judy Collins and Joe Cocker recorded his songs and he did too, in an angst-laden voice that was the musical equivalent of a block of cement. His cult has continued, albeit with limitations, but he never became the major focus of attention that this marvelous album of his songs will make him if there's any justice in the pop music world. (That is, of course, a big "if.") Warnes has had her commercial hits—Right Time of the Night, I Know a Heartache When I See One and, with Cocker, the Oscar-winning Up Where We Belong. She has never shown any signs of wanting anyone else to engineer her career; witness the fact that after all that success, she would have to release this record on a brand new label. She produced it herself with Roscoe Beck and brought out the sensual, bluesy qualities of Cohen's songs in a remarkable way. Who, for instance, would ever have thought of dancing to Leonard Cohen? Yet First We Take Manhattan, charged with some vivid guitar backup by Stevie Ray Vaughan, is as danceable a rock track as anyone is likely to find. Probably Cohen's best known tune, Bird on a Wire, gets an uptempo treatment too, with help from the biting saxophone of Dave Boruff, better known as a synthesizer player. Cohen wrote a new tune for the album, the relatively innocuous but romantic Ain't No Cure for Love, and duets with Warnes on Joan of Arc without doing too much damage. They also co-wrote one song when Warnes was his backup singer in 1979, Song of Bernadette (the name she was born with). To say that Warnes has never sounded better is a considerable compliment. She sings with passion and wit, not to mention that distinctive, octave-leaping yodely effect. The LP's implicit integrity is impressive—this is an eminently marketable singer who hasn't made an album in seven years—but the best thing about it is that it so thoroughly pleases the ear and the brain at the same time. (Cypress Records, 1523 Crossroads of the World, Los Angeles, Calif. 90028)
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