YMMV / Leonard Cohen

• Americans Hate Tingle: Cohen was renowned in Canada and in Europe but had sporadic success in the US. His song "Hallelujah", on the other hand, has met with widespread success owing to being Covered Up by over two thousand artists and bands, as well as having been featured in the film, Shrek, and its popularity reached its peak during the year of his passing in 2016.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The middle point of his career, between New Skin for the Old Ceremony and Various Positions, is considered by some to contain his weakest work, and the period was marked by diminished public and critical esteem. He got better.
• Covered Up:
  • "Hallelujah" (from Various Positions), notably; "Suzanne" (from Songs of Leonard Cohen), "Bird on the Wire" (Songs from a Room) are also popular choices.
  • "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" (from New Skin for the Old Ceremony) has been treated to a handful of high-profile cover versions as well.
  • "The Partisan" was originally written in 1943 by two exiled French Resistance members, but his version is the best-known one.
• Harsher in Hindsight: During a concert in 1985, Cohen reminisced about collaborating with influential producer Phil Spector (for Cohen's album Death of a Ladies' Man), as well as their shared interest in firearms: "[He was a] delightful chap. You really get to know him, you really did get to know him. And I had a Walther PPK. He had just an ordinary .45." In 2009, Spector was convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson with a handgun, after what was apparently a long history of abusive behavior and threatening people (including, as it turns out, Cohen himself) with weapons.
• Memetic Mutation: Leonard Cohen, Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino?^explanationThese three, depending on the light and camera angle, can look quite a bit like one another, especially in their younger days, so a quiz mixing up pics of the three of them and asking you to identify each one has made the social media rounds.
• Narm Charm: The extensive use of '80s synth and drum machine on I'm Your Man (and to a lesser extent on his other '80s and '90s releases) can be... a lot to take in, with "Jazz Police" being probably the most egregious example. They're great albums all the same. His later live performances of songs from this era tended to dial it back.
• Nightmare Fuel: Cohen actually managed to make folk music disturbing on Songs of Love and Hate. The suicidal self-loathing lyrics from Dress Rehearsal Rag are horrifying together with the stressful, endlessly repeating melody (the only "breaks" are the chorus). Even worse— Cohen was feeling like that at the time. And then we have the darkly comical Diamonds in the Mine where the vocals get increasingly unhinged as the song progresses, and by the end it's pretty much angry screaming. Both are listed under Sanity Slippage Song on the main page for good reason.
• Signature Song: For much of his career it was either "Suzanne" or "Bird on the Wire", but thanks in large part due to its inclusion in Shrek, "Hallelujah" would become Cohen's most well-known and beloved song, with hundreds upon hundreds of artists covering and parodying it over the years (more so than any of Cohen's other works).

---