David Browne
David Browne is EW's music critic and author of ''Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley'' (HarperCollins)
The master of meditative croaking, and one of his most prominent
disciples, returns with music imbued with post-9/11 ruefulness. On
Dear Heather, the 70-year-old Leonard Cohen still projects like crazy — he's godlike on
the spoken-word tracks — but the preponderance of slight songs marks this
as a minor effort. Nick Cave's double disc is divided between the jittery
gospel of Abattoir Blues and the lyrical, romantic The Lyre of Orpheus. Cave always sounds
like he's towing a barge, but he (and Cohen) remains a singular
sensation.
Cohen: B-
Cave: A-
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