Leonard Cohen is not a man for manifestos. Peripatetic bohemian, Montreal native, Zen meditator, diaspora Jew: Rock’s almost-octogenarian philosopher emeritus inhabits identities that are multiple, contested, and resistant to orthodoxy. He is, however, willing to lay some things on the line. “I’m slowing down the tune, I never liked it fast,” he intones over a burlesque blues line in the first track on his 13th studio album, Popular Problems. “You want to get there soon; I want to get there last.”
