Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Leonard Cohen

Ten New Songs

2001 · Columbia C 85953 · Stereo · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Columbia
Catalogue number	C 85953
Year	2001
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Rock/Folk - Singer-Songwriter
Producer	Sharon Robinson
Composer	Leonard Cohen, Sharon Robinson
Musicians	Leonard Cohen (vocals), Sharon Robinson (vocals, keyboards, programming, backing vocals)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  AL85953 1 1
Side B:  B L85953 X 1

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NN/NM

Variant chronology

2001 - US Columbia C 85953, Columbia-eye label, LP/Album  <- this copy
2001 - Canada Columbia CK 85953 edition
2001 - Europe Columbia COL 501202 series (various pressing plants)
2001 - US Columbia D141887 Columbia House club edition
2009 - Music On Vinyl (Europe) 180g reissue, remastered
2018 - Columbia 88985435371 LP reissue, remastered

This Pressing

Original-era US pressing (2001) - Columbia C 85953, Columbia-eye labels dated 2001; later reissues (club edition, European imports, 2009/2018 remasters) sit below it.

The Album

Ten New Songs marked Leonard Cohen's first album of original material in nine years, arriving after a long stretch spent largely in seclusion at a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy, California, where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk. The record was written and largely performed as a close collaboration with singer-songwriter Sharon Robinson, who co-wrote every song, sang on nearly every track, and built the spare, synthesizer-based arrangements around Cohen's voice. Thematically the songs turn on aging, mortality, devotion, and withdrawal from the world, delivered in the low, weathered baritone Cohen had settled into by this point in his career. Coming after a near-decade absence from recording, the album was received by critics and longtime fans as a quiet, mature return rather than a dramatic reinvention, reaffirming Cohen's standing as one of popular song's most literate and enduring voices. Its hushed, minimalist production and the deep partnership with Robinson would shape the sound of Cohen's subsequent work for the rest of his career.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. In My Secret Life
2. A Thousand Kisses Deep
3. That Don't Make It Junk
4. Here It Is
5. Love Itself

Side 2

1. By The Rivers Dark
2. Alexandra Leaving
3. You Have Loved Enough
4. Boogie Street
5. The Land Of Plenty

The Label

The side labels on this copy are a light-blue to turquoise ground with the boxed Columbia "eye" logo at right and the Sony Music Entertainment Inc./"Columbia" copyright rim text dated 2001, matching the Columbia corporate label design used from the early 1990s onward. The copyright line reads "©/℗ 2001," which is the earliest year this specific label design could have been printed, so this copy cannot predate 2001. This label design and catalogue number (C 85953/AL-BL 85953) place the copy in the original US Columbia LP issue window rather than any of the later European, club, or audiophile reissue lines that carry different catalogue numbers.

Fidelity

The album was mixed at two Los Angeles-area studios and mastered at Gateway Mastering, a modern digital-era mastering chain typical of major-label releases from this period rather than an analog audiophile cut. Collectors generally regard this as a well-produced but unremarkable-sounding standard vinyl pressing, with the digital source limiting the sense of 'vinyl magic' some seek in Cohen's earlier analog-era LPs. No audiophile reissue series (Mobile Fidelity, Analogue Productions, etc.) exists for this title; the 2009 Music On Vinyl and 2018 remastered pressings are the only widely discussed alternative cuts, and neither is considered a dramatic upgrade over this original.

Notes

This is a 2001 US Columbia pressing of Ten New Songs, catalogue C 85953. The side labels carry the Columbia-eye logo and a 2001 Sony Music Entertainment copyright line, which is the earliest date that label text could have been printed and places the copy within the original release window rather than a later reissue. The runouts read AL 85953 / BL 85953 with stamper suffixes, consistent with the catalogue's matrix prefix for this number. No pressing plant is identified on the labels.

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