Originally published in The
Aquarian Weekly
Jennifer Warnes
/ Famous Blue Raincoat:
20th
Anniversary Edition
Shout! Factory
The songs of Leonard
Cohen have had many
interpreters, but none more
effective than Jennifer Warnes.
So the 20th
Anniversary
reissue of this classic
album
is good news indeed.
The
original album, which was
sonically brilliant, has been
beautifully remastered
for an
even better listening
experience.
The album is a
wonderful
pairing of singer and song.
Warnes helps us to
understand Cohen better
than we previously had,
and
vice versa. The haunting
title
track, the Warnes/Cohen
collaboration “Song Of
Bernadette,” and the acappella
“A Singer Must Die” stand out,
but every track is
worth your
time.
I’ve reduced the
grade
slightly because the four
previously unreleased songs
that have been added to
the
album do not have quite
the
same magic as the
original nine
songs, which are pretty
much
perfect.
In A Word: Homage
Grade: A-
—by Ken Shane