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

Recent Songs

1979 · CBS S CBS 86097 · Stereo · UK (“MADE IN ENGLAND” printed on both side labels) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	CBS
Catalogue number	S CBS 86097
Year	1979
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	UK (“MADE IN ENGLAND” printed on both side labels)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Rock - Folk Rock/Singer-Songwriter
Producer	Leonard Cohen, Henry Lewy
Composer	Leonard Cohen (all tracks except “The Lost Canadian”, by M. A. Gerin-Lajoie)
Conductor	Luiz Briseño (Mariachi Band, “The Lost Canadian”)
Musicians	Leonard Cohen (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jennifer Warnes (backing/harmony vocals), Roscoe Beck (bass), John Bilezikjian (oud), Raffi Hakopian (violin), John Lissauer (piano, co-producer/arranger on “Came So Far For Beauty”), Garth Hudson (piano), Mitch Watkins (electric guitar), Steve Meador (drums), Randy Waldman (organ), Abraham Laboriel (bass), Edgar Lustgarden (cello), Earle Dumler (oboe), Bill Ginn (piano), Charles Roscoe Beck (bass), members of the band Passenger, and a mariachi ensemble led by Luiz Briseño on “The Lost Canadian”

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  B PAL 36264 CBS.S 86097-A2 C
Side B:  A PBL 36264 CBS.S 86097-B1

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: VG+

Variant chronology

1979 - US Columbia JC 36264, Terre Haute pressing
1979 - UK/Europe CBS 86097, Made in England labels, matrix suffixes A2/B1  <- this copy
1979 - Spain CBS S 86097
1979 - Japan CBS/Sony 25AP 1697
1979 - US Columbia JC 36264, white-label promo
2012 - Music On Vinyl 180g reissue MOVLP311
2017 - Japan Sony remaster SICP 5177

This Pressing

1979 UK/Europe pressing (stereo) - CBS gradient “eye” label, S CBS 86097, Made in England, matrix suffixes A2/B1.

The Album

Recent Songs was Leonard Cohen's sixth studio album and his deliberate retreat from the dense, Phil Spector-driven production of Death of a Ladies' Man back into the spare, acoustic folk idiom that had made his early records distinctive. Co-produced with longtime engineer Henry Lewy and recorded at A&M Studios in Hollywood in the spring of 1979, the album widened Cohen's palette with oud, violin, mariachi horns and jazz-inflected arrangements, reflecting his growing interest in Mediterranean and Latin textures. It also marked the start of Cohen's long creative partnership with singer Jennifer Warnes, whose harmony vocals became a signature of his sound for the rest of his career. Songs such as “The Gypsy's Wife” and “The Guests” are counted among his most enduring compositions, prized by devotees for their imagery and musical ambition even though the album was a modest commercial performer on release. Critics at the time were divided, but Recent Songs has since been reappraised as a pivotal transitional work bridging Cohen's 1970s output and the synthesizer-led records that followed in the 1980s, and it remains a touchstone for serious listeners tracing the arc of his songwriting.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. The Guests
2. Humbled In Love
3. The Window
4. Came So Far For Beauty
5. The Lost Canadian (Un Canadien Errant)

Side 2

1. The Traitor
2. Our Lady Of Solitude
3. The Gypsy's Wife
4. The Smokey Life
5. Ballad Of The Absent Mare

The Label

The side labels show the 1970s CBS gradient design - a salmon-pink-to-yellow ground with a white “CBS” wordmark and the square-bordered “eye” emblem above it, dark red/black print, and the full MCPS/BIEM rim text; the labels read S CBS 86097 and are printed MADE IN ENGLAND. This is the standard UK/European CBS album label used across the mid-to-late 1970s and into 1980, replacing the earlier orange “walking eye” design; the LC 0149 label code confirms a copy struck no earlier than 1977 and is consistent with the record's own 1979 copyright line. Within the catalogue number's own chronology this is the UK/Europe pressing, distinct from the contemporaneous US Columbia JC 36264 issue and from the later Spanish, Japanese and reissue pressings.

Fidelity

This is a standard-issue late-1970s CBS analog stereo cut, mastered and pressed in England with no special audiophile mastering credited on the labels or jacket. Collectors generally regard the contemporary CBS/Columbia pressings of this title as solid if unremarkable, with no major sonic complaints reported for the UK/European pressing specifically. The only later alternatives are a 2012 Music On Vinyl 180g reissue and a 2017 Japanese remaster, neither of which has established a strong reputation as superior to the original analog cut among collectors on the forums. Within the album's limited pressing history, this UK/European original sits at the top of the practical fidelity hierarchy alongside the contemporaneous US pressing.

Notes

This is a 1979 UK/Europe stereo pressing of Recent Songs on CBS, not the US Columbia JC 36264 issue the title is also known under. The side labels carry the standard late-1970s CBS gradient design with the LC 0149 label code (a mark that cannot predate 1977) and are printed MADE IN ENGLAND, consistent with the ℗1979 CBS Inc. copyright line on the labels. The runout suffixes A2/B1 place it within the UK/European pressing run of this catalogue number rather than the Italian or other continental variants sharing the same number. The back cover's CB 271 price code is the UK/export CBS code used on this issue.

Documenting collections

I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch: email

This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/leonard-cohen-recent-songs-2/