Pitchfork

Legendary poet and singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen is plotting his return to the turbulent world of popular music. Ten New Songs, his first studio effort in nine years, will be released on October 16th, and will yet again prove that, for Cohen, working album titles are just as good as those fanciful, superfluous "real" titles. The new record will be the second official release from the Cohen camp of 2001; it follows the recently released 1979 tour document Field Commander Cohen.

After completing his 1992 LP The Future, the reclusive Quebecois retreated to a Zen monastery atop Mount Baldy. No friggin' joke. The 67-year-old Cohen divulged in a recent interview that he spent his downtime on a mountaintop as "the cook for the old master and his attendant... I came down a couple of years ago." Indeed. Maybe now he can resume his serious work: scribbling on bathroom walls and imitating the smoking PSA frog. Tracklist, boys?:

01 In My Secret Life
02 A Thousand Kisses Deep
03 That Don't Make It Junk
04 Here It Is
05 Love Itself
06 By the Rivers Dark
07 Alexandra Leaving
08 You Have Loved Enough
09 Boogie Street
10 The Land of Plenty