Leonard Cohen already had his style down on debut. In “Suzanne,” “Master Song,” and the peerless “So Long, Marianne,” he sounds bemused by his own romantic travails, inventing what critic Robert Christgau called “his tuneless, grave, infinitely self-mocking vocal presence.”  

 Songs From a Room is thin and sparse, weighed down by "Bird on a Wire," which became a schlock standard.  

 Songs of Love and Hate is a return to form. Cohen sings about jealous rivals (“Famous Blue Raincoat”), demon lovers (“Avalanche”), cold and lonesome virgin warrior goddesses (“Joan of Arc”), and God knows what else (“Let’s Sing Another Song, Boys”), bursting with wit and imagina... 

 New Skin for the Old Ceremony is almost as great, featuring the boho romance "Chelsea Hotel No. 2." Note: Oral sex on unmade hotel beds is almost always a bad idea, since those bedspreads are laundered usually about once every five years. 

 Leonard Cohen is the Jewish Bryan Ferry. In the excellent liner notes of 1975's The Best of Leonard Cohen, he explains the suave cover photo: "I rarely ever look this good, or bad, depending on your politics." That sums the man up.  

 The only total waste in Cohen's catalog is the Phil Spector collaboration Death of a Ladies’ Man. 

 Recent Songs has "Came So Far for Beauty." (Next line: "And I left so much behind.") 

 Various Positions has "Hallelujah," which unexpectedly became Cohen's signature song after Jeff Buckley revived it in the 1990s.  

 I'm Your Man perversely adds cheesy Eurodisco synths and disco-girl vocals to some of his bleakest tunes: "Everybody Knows," "First We Take Manhattan," "Tower of Song." 

 The Future has a hilarious eight-minute send-up of Irving Berlin's "Always," plus political/spiritual statements along the lines of "Anthem" ("There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in"). 

 Cohen has released three best-of anthologies, but bizarrely, none of them include "Joan of Arc."  

 Field Commander Cohen is a worthy 1979 live document. 

 Ten New Songs offered “Alexandra’s Leaving,” “In My Secret Life,” and “You Have Loved Enough,” the epitaph Cohen has been writing for himself throughout his career.  

 The live album to hear first is his career-capping Live In London, from a world tour Cohen embarked on after discovering that his former businness manager had bilked him.