You may have noticed that we are raving Leonard Cohen fanatics here at Flavorpill. As such, it’s no surprise that we are quietly losing our shit about the fact that he has a new album out today — Old Ideas is his first studio album since 2004′s Dear Heather, and promises to be compulsory listening. We thought we’d celebrate by putting together our completely subjective essential Leonard Cohen discography, like we did for Tom Waits a while back — ten songs from over the years that best illustrate what we love about Montreal’s poet laureate. Choosing only ten songs from a discography that spans nearly half a century is, of course, a pretty challenging task (especially if you’re limiting yourself to one track from any given album.) So don’t just rant and rave about our choices — let us know your favorites, too.

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Back in December, we had to put our weekly streaming albums feature on hiatus due to the music industry’s annual holiday fallow period. But three weeks into the new year, we’re back in a big way. Perhaps our most anticipated album of 2012, Leonard Cohen’s Old Ideas, is newly available for preview — and we’re fairly awed by what we’ve heard so far. Your January 23rd roundup also features a pair of very different but equally wonderful debuts, from Porcelain Raft and Dodecahedron, as well as thoroughly enjoyable releases by Chairlift and Gonjasufi. Find something to love — be it brand-new black metal or iconic folk-rock — after the jump.

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Maybe you didn’t realize Leonard Cohen had written a musical for Canadian TV. But now that you know he did, back in 1983, don’t you want to drop everything and watch it? Well, thanks to Dangerous Minds, which spotted the film on YouTube, you can. The 25-minute production I Am a Hotel is comprised of five bittersweet love vignettes set at Toronto’s King Edward Hotel, each soundtracked and inspired by one of Cohen’s songs (“Suzanne” and “Chelsea Hotel #2″ are both featured). The stories are interspersed with shots of Cohen — billed as “The Resident” — performing live or singing directly into the camera, making I Am a Hotel more like a series of high-concept music videos than a traditional musical. The film’s dreamy mysticism and lyrical power fortunately overshadows is ’80s-tastic visual aesthetic and effects, making it well worth a half-hour of your time. In fact, why not watch it right now? It’s Friday! Close your office door. No one’s looking. Your boss already went home.

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This week saw the release of Bat Chain Puller, the “lost” Captain Beefheart album. Although its songs have been available on various bootlegs, the album — recorded with Frank Zappa in 1976 — has never officially been released until now. In the intervening years, it’s become something of a legend — not quite on the level of Smile or the lost David Bowie album, but still, a sought-after relic of a bygone era. And while it’s finally getting an official release, there are still other similarly shelved records we’d love to hear but probably never will (we imagine them stuck in a vault somewhere, like the one the Cigarette Smoking Man tends in The X-Files). Here are a few we’d love to get our hands on.

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Anyone who’s “friends” with Leonard Cohen on Facebook will have received a lovely surprise in their news feed this morning — a brand spanking new song from his forthcoming album Old Ideas, streaming for free via Soundcloud. And as if that wasn’t enough, the song — which is entitled “Darkness” — is also really good. It starts with a moody flamenco-influenced intro that’s decidedly reminiscent of Songs of Love and Hate track “Avalanche,” before expanding into a mid-tempo Hammond-driven ballad. The lyric manages to poke fun at Cohen’s reputation as the Grand Overlord of Melancholy (“I caught the darkness,” indeed) but also functions as a latter-day “Tower of Song”-style reflection on mortality — especially the bit where he sings “I got no future/ I know my days are few…” in a way that’s so matter-of-fact that it’s quietly heartbreaking. Anyway, have a listen after the jump and let us know what you think.

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A few days ago, we posted our selection of the albums we’re most looking forward to in 2012. As it happens, most of these are due for release a little later in the year — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s nothing worth hearing due out in January. We’ve pored over the release schedules for our regular monthly round-up of the 10 records that we we reckon everyone needs to hear over the next month, and the results await you after the jump — including a couple that we missed last week, and would definitely have included in our most anticipated records of 2012 if we’d know about them. (Note: this does not include She Who Shall Not Be Named, so don’t ask.)

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With end-of-year listomania receding and release schedules starting to get locked down for the coming year, it’s time to stop looking back and start looking forward at the the most exciting albums due out next year. We’ve started with a selection of 15 records that have definite (or pretty much definite) release dates, titles, etc. — mostly in the first three months of the year — and also included a more speculative look further forward at a selection of albums that are rumored to be dropping at some point in 2012. So far, we have to say that it’s shaping up to be an excellent year — bring on January!

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The Occupy movement is famous for welcoming anyone who wants to join. But you can’t help but wonder if, for campers who’ve endured taunts and snow and pepper spray, some musical guests are more welcome than others. Yes, it’s a thrill to see Philip Glass using the people’s mic at Lincoln Center, but too many of the celebrities who visit OWS seem (at the risk of being uncharitable) to be using its fame for their own good instead of vice-versa. One wonders, for instance, how many impassioned discussions of banking regulations and foreclosure statistics were ever interrupted by the comment, “You know who I’d love to hear right now? Third Eye Blind.”

With that in mind, we offer ten dream concerts for OWS — double bills of music that’s relevant and rousing, from artists (unlike these movement-friendly newcomers) with enough name recognition to draw both fans and media attention to Zuccotti Park, or anywhere else the 99 percent are trying to make themselves heard. Read More »

Sure, cooking the turkey so that it’s not underdone and not too dry is difficult enough. But the hardest thing about Thanksgiving Day with your family is, inevitably, the music. Your parents want something dire from the ’70s, like Neil Diamond or Creedence; that cousin from Jersey who you never speak to has somehow heard that you “like music” and wants to play you the new Nickelback record; and your kid sister keeps demanding to connect up her iPod to the stereo so she can play her Miley Cyrus record. Argh. So let us help out with a selection of Thanksgiving records that’ll at least placate your folks, and hopefully Jersey cousin too — you might need to just lend kid sister your headphones and hope for the best, though. Read More »

1. Old Ideas, the lovely Leonard Cohen’s first studio album in seven years, isn’t due out until January, but you can already stream one of the tracks called “Show Me The Place” here.

2. Julie Delpy has signed on to direct The Right Profile, a biopic about Clash frontman Joe Strummer that will focus on his later years, which were spent largely outside of the spotlight. [via CinemaBlend]

3. Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, James Frey, and Chris Adrian are among the authors on the shortlist for the 19th annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award, which is organized by the Literary Review. The lucky winner will be announced at a ceremony on December 6. [via Telegraph]

4. According to a new study in the UK, more successful male artists have more sexual partners than less successful artists. Oddly, the researchers’ findings did not hold true for female artists. [via Guardian]

5. While discussing last weekend’s pepper spray incident at UC Davis with Bill O’Reilly, Fox News host Megyn Kelly felt the need to point out that it is “a food product, essentially.” Meanwhile O’Reilly says, “I don’t think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police, particularly at a place like UC Davis, which is a fairly liberal campus.” [via Gawker]

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