- For the band called The Future, see The Human League.
- See also: Future.
| The Future | |||||
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| Studio album by Leonard Cohen | |||||
| Released | November 1992 | ||||
| Recorded | January–June 1992 | ||||
| Genre | Folk-rock | ||||
| Length | 59:41 | ||||
| Label | Columbia | ||||
| Producer | Leonard Cohen, Steve Lindsey, Bill Ginn, Leanne Ungar, Rebecca De Mornay, Yoav Goren | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Leonard Cohen chronology | |||||
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The Future is one of the most popular Leonard Cohen albums, and has come to be recognized as his essential "film-score" album. Nearly every one of the songs on the album has appeared in some notable form in a Hollywood film. Widely recognized as one of Cohen's more accessible albums, The Future contains everything from gospel-choir choruses (title track) to synthesizer ballads ("Waiting for the Miracle"), to pop-country ("Closing Time"), to marching band, staccato-like rhythms ("Democracy"). "Democracy" admittedly influenced the opening track of HBO's The Sopranos, "Woke up This Morning", written and performed by A3 and widely miscredited to Cohen. While not his most commercially successful album internationally, The Future is definitely one of his most musically diverse outings. The album was, however, one of Cohen's biggest chart successes in his native Canada, where "Closing Time" and "The Future" were both significant Top 40 hits. Cohen, whose singing voice is famously an acquired taste, won the 1992 Juno Award for Best Male Vocalist. In his acceptance speech, he quipped that "only in Canada could I win a Best Vocalist award". The Future was the last Cohen album to be recorded and produced entirely in analog and then digitised after mixdown. Its working titles were Busted (after the line from "Closing Time") and Be for Real. Cohen's then-girlfriend, actress Rebecca De Mornay, co-produced the song "Anthem". "Tacoma Trailer" is one of two instrumentals in the Cohen catalogue. The other is "Improvisation" from Live Songs. The album is silver in the UK.
Film Soundtracks
Most recognizable is the use of three songs ("Waiting for the Miracle", "Anthem", and the title track) in Oliver Stone's graphic 1994 film Natural Born Killers. Songs from this album have also appeared in the films Wonder Boys starring Michael Douglas and The Life of David Gale starring Kevin Spacey.
Track listing
All tracks written by Cohen, except where noted.
- "The Future" – 6:34
- "Waiting for the Miracle" (Cohen, Sharon Robinson) – 7:43
- "Be for Real" (Frederick Knight) – 4:32
- "Closing Time" – 6:00
- "Anthem" – 6:09
- "Democracy" – 7:14
- "Light as the Breeze" – 7:17
- "Always" (Irving Berlin) – 8:04
- "Tacoma Trailer" – 5:57
