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Leonard Cohen

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OLD IDEAS

Leonard Cohen

Columbia, $8.99

Throughout his 45-year career, Leonard Cohen has walked a fine line between love, sex, and religion, often embodying the trinity in the same song. Cohen doesn't abandon those themes on his latest album, "Old Ideas," his first studio recording in eight years and perhaps one of his best in decades.

Part of the reason the record succeeds is the honesty that the 77-year singer-songwriter delivers as he questions mortality, god, and betrayal with poetic dignity.

In 2005, Cohen's former manager took the liberty of emptying his savings accounts, leaving the deep-throated troubadour nearly broke. And though the singer won a civil suit in 2006, it's not believed that he's collected any money back. As a result, Cohen has had to spend his retirement years on the road singing for his supper.

But out of this adversity comes an album rooted heavily in his signature prayer-like delivery with an air of aesthetic realism.

"Old Ideas" kicks off with "Going Home," a poem written by Cohen and set to music by Cohen and co-writer Patrick Leonard. Hearing Cohen's nearly-spoken voice delivery, it becomes a powerful ditty of Cohen's spiritual foundation as well as how he sees himself.

In the song, God says Cohen does what he tells him, even though it's not always welcome. This sets the tone for the remainder of album of a man tormented by mistakes of the past and his growing older.

Cohen has never been a stranger to religious overtones: After all, he's the man that wrote "Hallelujah," which became immortalized by the late Jeff Buckley.

But this album seems to provide more weighted spiritual balance. It's not religious, at least in any organized form, but it's definitely more pious than usual. One has to go no further than the record's second track "Amen," a lengthy ominous piece that seems diametric to "Hallelujah," where the singer questions if he's understood by god.

Minimal instrumentation helps support the album's 10 tracks, dominated by Cohen's raspy baritone delivery. While instrumentation varies from guitar to steel guitar and piano and bass, there's a nice compliment of percussive rhythms and background vocals.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH

Van Halen

Interscope, $14.99

Let's face it, for many fans, Van Halen without founding singer David Lee Roth just isn't Van Halen. It's Van Hagar. Or even Van That-Guy-From-Extreme.

Nearly 30 years after Roth and his bandmates parted ways following the group's "1984" album, they're back with "A Different Kind Of Truth."

Despite its title, the album's 13 tracks feel more than a little bit familiar, which is a good thing if you're looking to rewind the clock to Van Halen circa the late 1970s and early 1980s. If that sort of thing strikes you as dad-rock, however, then not so much.

Regardless, "A Different Kind Of Truth" shows 14 years since the last full Van Halen album, guitar demon Eddie Van Halen remains at the top of his game, betraying no hint of age or wear in his guitar work. All the staples are there: scorching riffs, waves of overlapping notes that dive bomb into deep growls and signature sonic horse wails.

Notably absent from "A Different Kind Of Truth" are the keyboard-heavy songs or power ballads found in the stretch of albums with Sammy Hagar on vocals.

Instead, Van Halen mostly delivers hard-pounding rockers - less "Jump," more "Atomic Punk."

And speed. Several tracks, such as the relentless "Bullethead" and "As Is," fueled by a rockabilly-like riff, are as fast and heavy as anything Van Halen has previously done.

A lot of the credit for that goes to drummer Alex Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen's son, Wolfgang, on bass. (Wolfgang replaced original Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony during a U.S. tour about four years ago.)

Roth's voice hasn't aged quite as well, but his delivery is lively and he lobs in plenty of his trademark yelps.

The singer always was equal parts hype man and frontman, and on some tracks, like the underwhelming first single, "Tattoo," he's in over-the-top, Diamond Dave mode, singing "Sexy dragon magic! So very autobiographic!"

Singing with an audible wink worked better on their smash hit "Panama," but you can't blame Roth for trying. He's just giving fans of Van Halen 1.0 what they've wanted for three decades.

And on party rocker "Blood and Fire," Roth tells those fans: "Told you I was coming back/Say you miss me/Say it like you mean it."

PURPLE NAKED LADIES

The Internet

Odd Future, $14.42

The producer duo of Matt Martians and Syd Tha Kyd, of the group OFWGKTA, misses the mark with their new album "Purple Naked Ladies," a spacey foray into digital sounds that results in more confusion than clarity.

Since it was recorded on Odd Future's own label, the two artists, known together as The Internet, have obviously been given a wide berth to play around with sounds and schemes. And they do. To a fault. The digital soundscape quickly becomes muddy and the musical purpose lost.

Some songs like "Fastlane" offer a more traditional R&B approach. "Ode To A Dream" also promises something cohesive, with nice vocal features from Kilo Kish and Coco O. But the latter half of the song devolves into a swirl of reverse-played beats and tinny electronic drum hits. It's hard to image this as a radio staple, or even a playlist favorite.

On "Violet Nude Women," it often sounds like there are no fewer than six instrumental sounds vying for attention, each attempting to elbow the others out of the way and take prominence. The melody is light and playful, but it soon gets lost as disparate noises collide.

The Internet is essentially a proof of concept group. They are decent producers, but they'll need a star up front to truly shine.

- Associated Press