Leonard Cohen - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 5-30-1988

This is the fourth, and so far last, Leonard Cohen BBC album I plan on posting. Like the last one, it's a concert. It's also a much longer one, clocking in at over two hours long.

Cohen's career reached a commercial low point in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was so bad that when his album "Various Positions" was released in 1984, his record company refused to release it in the U.S. (For years, one could only get it as an import from Canada.) But that was a strong album that contained what would become his most famous song, "Hallelujah." His next album, "I'm Your Man," was arguably even better. It also sold much better, helped by the fact that he had a new record company that supported it. 

This was part of his tour to support that album. There are no official live albums from the 1980s at all, so this is an excellent one to fill in that gap. The sound quality is top notch, as you'd expect from the BBC.

Note that Cohen's voice got much deeper all through the 1980s. So he sound considerably different than on the last BBC concert album, recorded in 1979.

I believe there's only one song missing: "Avalanche." I don't know why it wasn't included.

Unfortunately, I imagine this is the last BBC album I'll be posting of his music, because I don't know of any BBC concerts or significant sessions after this. He did perform a set at the Glastonbury Festival in 2008, and those sets are almost always broadcast by the BBC. But I'm guessing his set wasn't broadcast, because I can't find a good copy of that performance anywhere. If you have one, please share.

This album is two hours and 19 minutes long.

01 talk (Leonard Cohen)
02 Dance Me to the End of Love (Leonard Cohen)
03 talk (Leonard Cohen)
04 Ain't No Cure for Love (Leonard Cohen)
05 Who by Fire (Leonard Cohen)
06 Bird on the Wire (Leonard Cohen)
07 talk (Leonard Cohen)
08 I'm Your Man (Leonard Cohen)
09 Sisters of Mercy (Leonard Cohen)
10 Coming Back to You (Leonard Cohen)
11 talk (Leonard Cohen)
12 First We Take Manhattan (Leonard Cohen)
13 talk (Leonard Cohen)
14 Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (Leonard Cohen)
15 Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen)
16 The Stranger Song (Leonard Cohen)
17 If It Be Your Will (Leonard Cohen)
18 Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen)
19 Joan of Arc (Leonard Cohen)
20 Hallelujah [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
21 There Is a War (Leonard Cohen)
22 talk (Leonard Cohen)
23 Take This Waltz (Leonard Cohen)
24 The Partisan (Leonard Cohen)
25 Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)
26 Passin' Through (Leonard Cohen)
27 I Tried to Leave You (Leonard Cohen)
28 Whither Thou Goest (Leonard Cohen)
29 So Long, Marianne (Leonard Cohen)

https://www.imagenetz.de/gFjhd

The cover photo was taken in Paris, France, in May 1988.