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Oct 24, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Leonard Cohen

Legendary singer/songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen passed away in November 2016 and a new posthumous album from him, Thanks for the Dance, is due out November 22 via Sony Music. Now another song from the album, “Happens to the Heart,” has been shared via a video for it. Daniel Askill directed the clip, which doesn’t feature Cohen and was produced by NOWNESS. Watch it below.

Previously the first single from Thanks for the Dance, “The Goal,” was shared. Cohen’s son, Adam Cohen, put together Thanks for the Dance, using previously unreleased vocals/lyrics by Leonard and new instrumentation recorded for the album by Adam and a team of notable contributors.

Just a few weeks before Leonard Cohen’s death he released his last album, his 14th, You Want It Darker, which was produced by his son Adam. There remained material from that album, “bare musical sketches” as a previous press release put it, sometimes just vocals, that Adam used to make Thanks for the Dance. Before his death Leonard had asked his son to embark on the project.

The album was recorded in various locations and features a slew of special guests. Damien Rice, Leslie Feist, and Jennifer Warnes all contributed vocals. Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire played bass, Bryce Dessner of The National played guitar, and the composer Dustin O’Halloran played piano. Javier Mas, who had previously been in Leonard Cohen’s touring band, played Leonard’s own guitar on the album. The Berlin-based choir Cantus Domus and the s t a r g a z e orchestra contributed, as did The Shaar Hashomayim choir. Patrick Watson co-produced a song. Daniel Lanois “dropped in, beautifully enriching sparse arrangements.” Michael Chaves, who recorded and mixed You Want It Darker, did the engineering and mixing. And finally, Beck played guitar and Jew’s harp.

Adam Cohen had this to say about the album in the previous press release: “In composing and arranging the music for his words, we chose his most characteristic musical signatures, in this way keeping him with us. 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.”

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