Leonard Cohen Posthumous Releases

Leonard Cohen was one of the greatest Canadian lyricists of all time. He was as much a poet as he was a singer. In fact, his style favoured content of the lyrics over singing quality. It was heartbreaking for many fans in November 2016 when his death was announced to the public.

There has been a growing trend for musicians to archive much of their unreleased material. This is so that when they die they will still be able to posthumous bring out new songs. This has been seen most recently with pop music legends Michael Jackson and Prince. The latter will likely have songs released under his name for years to come thanks to his extensive hoarding of recordings.

Many listeners to pop music want to know if the same thing will happen for Leonard Cohen. We know that the singer did have at least some songs archived. In 1997 he released one of these in a best of album. In the years to come it seems highly likely that another compilation record will hit the charts. When it does there could be a bigger incentive to buy it if further unreleased material is contained within it.

His son Adam Cohen is best known for singing the drafts and rejected songs of his father. For this reason alone, there is speculation that Adam will have an impact on the archive and keeping the reputation alive. He will be sure to one-day release previously recorded tracks by his father. The fact that his son not only has a history of singing his fathers written lyrics but also sounding like him has interesting implications. It suggests that if Leonard Cohen did have a large amount of songs that were written but never actually sung by him then his son could cover them himself.