''Thanks for the Dance'' is the fifteenth and final studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

, released posthumously through Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on November 22, 2019. It is the first release following Cohen's death in November 2016, and includes contributions from various musicians, such as

Daniel Lanois Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie ...

, Beck,

Jennifer Warnes Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter. She has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet "Up Where We Belong" and in 1987 for ...

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success ...

and

Leslie Feist Leslie Feist (born 13 February 1976), known mononymously as Feist, is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. Feist launched her solo mu ...

. The song "The Goal" was released with the announcement of the album, on September 20, 2019. Described as a "continuation" of Cohen's previous studio album, '' You Want It Darker'' (2016), the album's vocal tracks were recorded during the same sessions, with Cohen's son and album producer Adam Cohen noting that the album should not be considered an album of "discarded songs or B sides".

Background

The songs on the album comprise "sketches" left over from the sessions for Cohen's final studio album '' You Want It Darker'' that were finished by Cohen's son Adam Cohen in a "garage near his father's old house". Regarding the tracks, Cohen noted: "Had we had more time and had eonardbeen more robust, we would have gotten to them.

e had E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...

conversations about what instrumentation and what feelings he wanted the completed work to evoke sadly, the fact that I would be completing them without him was given."

Critical reception

''Thanks for the Dance'' received critical acclaim. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 25 reviews. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' gave the album 4 stars, praising the album and saying it is "a magnificent parting shot that's also that exceptionally rare thing — a posthumous work as alive, challenging, and essential as anything issued in the artist's lifetime". The album was a Juno Award nominee for Adult Alternative Album of the Year at the

Juno Awards of 2020 The Juno Awards of 2020, the 49th Juno Awards, was an awards presentation that was to be held at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on 15 March 2020. The awards and associated events were cancelled due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pand ...

.Melody Lau
"Alessia Cara and Tory Lanez lead the 2020 Juno nominations"
CBC Music, January 28, 2019.

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals (1–9) * Pietro Amato – horns (8) * Erika Angell – vocals (8) * Kobi Arditi – trombone (1) *

Avi Avital Avi Avital (Hebrew: אבי אביטל, born 19 October 1978) is an Israeli mandolinist. He is best known for his renditions of well-known Baroque and folk music, much of which was originally written for other instruments. He has been nominated fo ...

– mandolin (2) * Beck – Jew's harp (3), acoustic guitar (3) * Romain Bly – trumpet (1) *

Howard Bilerman Howard Bilerman (born September 25, 1970) is a Canadian musician, sound engineer, and record producer based in Montreal, Quebec.

– recording engineer (8) * Charlie Bisharat – violin (1) * Jacob Braun – cello (1) * David Campbell – conductor (1) * – choir (7) *

Matt Chamberlain Matthew Chamberlain (born April 17, 1967) is an American session musician, drummer, producer and songwriter. Biography Life and career Chamberlain was born in San Pedro, California on April 17, 1967. He began learning how to play the drums ...

– drums (8), percussion (8) * Michael Chaves – bass (1,2,3,4,5,7,9), acoustic guitar (1,5,8), claps (3), drums (4), percussion (5), electric guitar (7,8), synthesizer (8) * Adam Cohen – acoustic guitar (3), claps (3), synthesizer (7), vocals (9) * Stewart Cole – trumpet (4), flugelhorn (4), clarinet (4), modular synthesizer (4) * Carlos de Jacoba – acoustic guitar (3) * André Deritter – conductor (1) * George Doering – baritone ukulele (4) * Andrew Duckles – viola (1) *

– vocals (4) * Caimin Gilmore – double bass (1) * Larry Goldings – flute (1), piano (9) * Steve Hassett – vocals (9) * Rob Humphreys – percussion (1) *

– piano (1,3), vocals (3), guitar effects (5) * Lilah Larson – vocals (8) *

Patrick Leonard Patrick Ray Leonard (born March 14, 1956) is an American songwriter, keyboardist, film composer, and music producer, best known for his longtime collaboration with Madonna. His work with Madonna includes her albums '' True Blue'' (1986), ''Who's ...

– piano (6) * Javier Mas – Spanish laud (1,4), acoustic guitar (2,3,4,6,9), claps (3) * Dustin O'Halloran – piano (5) * Georg Paltz – clarinet (1) * Silvia Perez Cruz – vocals (2,3) * Zac Rae – felt piano (1,3), ride cymbal (2), Wurlitzer (2,3), vibraphone (2,4), toy piano (2), synthesizer (3,5), kick drum (3), organ (4),

zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...

(5), strings (6,7), piano (7), bells (7), keyboard (9) * Zoe Randell – vocals (9) * Mariza Rizou – vocals (2) * Richard Reed Parry – bass (3) *

– vocals (9) * Sharon Robinson – percussion (5), vocals (5) * Shaar Hashomayim Men's Choir – choir (7) * Jason Sharp – saxophone (8) * Jessica Staveley-Taylor – vocals (9) * Mishka Stein – bass (8) *

Aaron Sterling Aaron Sterling (born July 9, 1980) is an American drummer, producer, engineer, and session musician who lives in Los Angeles. The son of professional musicians, Sterling grew up in Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to L.A. in 2000. K ...

– cymbals (4) * Dave Stone – string bass (1) * Alistair Sung – cello (1) * Molly Sweeney – vocals (8) * Jamie Thompson – drums (8) * Maaike van der Linde – flute (1) * Marlies van Gangelen – oboe (1) * Josefina Vergara – violin (1) * Mariam Wallentin – vocals (9) *

– vocals (4) * Patrick Watson – organ (8), synthesizer (8 and 9), horn arrangement (8)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums Leonard Cohen albums Albums published posthumously