Leonard Cohen worked until the end as an artist—even though he disavows the word in the opening song on his posthumous album, "Happens to the Heart." Regrets? He has a few, and in "Happens," he seems to say that his greatest is that he never cared enough about the people in his life. And because he was always a poet, his lyrics can bear many hearings and contain many interpretations.
Cohen’s voice, by the time he recorded these songs, had sunken to subterranean, like the creak of a coffin opening and closing. His son Adam, by now well-established as a recording artist, finished Thanks for the Dance with a sparse simplicity harkening back to Songs of Leonard Cohen and other early LPs. Javier Mas, a member of Cohen’s touring band, plays guitar, and a handful of other musicians add sensitive touches. Thanks for the Dance is a fine coda to a life in words and music, as well as a deliberate farewell.
