Almost three years after his death, Leonard Cohen speaks again in a newly-released track titled “The Goal.”
“I'm almost alive / I'm almost at home,” he says. “No one to follow / And nothing to teach /Except that the goal / Falls short of the reach.”
The spoken-word piece, set to piano and Spanish guitar, runs about a minute.
"The Goal" is one of nine track on Thanks for the Dance, a collection of previously unreleased work by Cohen that comes out Nov. 22.
Musicians who contributed their talents to the project include Leslie Feist, Jennifer Warnes, Damien Rice, Beck, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and The National’s Bryce Dessner. Canadian producer Daniel Lanois also helped enrich arrangements.
"In composing and arranging the music for his words, we chose his most characteristic musical signatures, in this way keeping him with us,” said his son, Adam Cohen, in a release.
“What moves me most about the album is the startled response of those who have heard it. ‘Leonard lives’! they say, one after the other.”
Montreal-born Cohen died in November 2016 at 82.