When looking over the long search about the meaning of life, seen through the eyes of a man who can compose music, write poetry or give a reading of his words that will leave you wanting to look at things beyond the pale. All inquiries of such an artist, musician, and writer will ultimately lead to a seeker called Leonard Cohen. Few if any musicians can match his depth of work, and it can be said that among entertainers that take their craft serious, Leonard Cohen is that one artist who stands atop the list of most admired and least understood.

With an artist like Cohen who has put out many memorable,  and to some, life changing songs and poetry… it’s hard to name his one best, but his album, ” The Future ” from 1992 will come as close as any of his other works to being his seminal masterpiece.

Some of the lyrics from the title song give a picture of the world seen through the eyes of someone who no longer believes the slogans, the dogma, or the doctrine of living. A man who sees the world clearly and still rest his ultimate longing for love being the engine that will save the day, knowing still, that it will likely end in disaster.

I’ve seen the nations rise and fall, I’ve heard their stories, heard them all, but love’s the only engine of survival. Your servant here, he has been told to say it clear, to say it cold: It’s over, it ain’t going any further.

And now the wheels of heaven stop, you feel the devil’s riding crop, Get ready for the future: it is murder.

From the title song the album stays on the path of reality with the next song, ” Waiting for the miracle.” Not as in your face as the title track, but much darker in it’s description of a man that appears to have looked over all the really important things in life while waiting for that one miracle. As the song continues on to it’s final lyric your not sure if it’s advice or lament Cohen is expressing.

When you’ve fallen on the highway and you’re lying in the rain, and they ask you how you’re doing of course you’ll say you can’t complain, If you’re squeezed for information, that’s when you’ve got to play it dumb: You just say you’re out there waiting for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

As the journey progresses you find yourself listening to a song that could easily be passed off as Pop Country, until you look a bit deeper behind the lyrics of, ” Closing Time. ” From there you will be taken into some of Cohen’s most sublime lyrics and sound with his seminal song, ” Anthem.”  Of all of Leonard Cohen’s work, this song sticks in places you rarely think about. It’s lyrics are like those passages from books you remember that help you get through life, or that poem you memorized as a child that grounds you when the world is pressing hard.

The song begins with advice:

The birds they sang at the break of day, Start again I heard them say.
Don’t dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be.

In the middle you get a beautiful description of the state of man and his common failings, with a description that even with the cracks in our being, those cracks are the method for our ultimate salvation and sanity. Again with the advice to continue ringing the bell you have left to ring,  cracks and all. Don’t give up.

Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

And with the album’s final lyric and description of man, you end with with salvation, but at a cost. Only to return to the advice to continue striving in the face of desperation.

You can add up the parts but you won’t have the sum, You can strike up the march, there is no drum, Every heart, every heart to love will come. But like a refugee.

There are other wonderful  songs on this Album but the remaining true masterpiece of writing  is, “ Democracy ” which describes an America that hasn’t quite reached it’s potential and is still striving, but at times failing. It leaves you wondering that after America….what next?

If your looking for a musical journey with beautiful tunes and poetic lyrics that will likely be more appreciated as the years go by, then, ” The Future ” is a great place to start. There is only one catch after listening and then reading the lyrics. It will not be your only album from Cohen when your done.

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Click to listen to Anthem.