Although neither the musician nor his record label have confirmed it, it seems that Leonard Cohen may be celebrating his 80th birthday next month with a new studio album as well.
On Thursday a series of posts on a fan message board on Cohen's official site emerged with news of record reportedly titled "Popular Problems." The album was reportedly noted in an event booklet by Jarkko Arjatsalo, creator of the popular fan site The Leonard Cohen Files. The booklet was celebrating the Leonard Cohen Event taking place in Dublin running from Aug. 7-10, an international gathering of Cohen fans featuring song, poetry and literature celebrating the singer (who wasn't attending the event).
The Beyonce-style surprise album news received a bit more clout the same day when noted author Sylvie Simmons -- who wrote the 2012 biography "I'm Your Man: The Life Of Leonard Cohen" -- tweeted similar information:
Although Simmons didn't reveal an album title or a release date, it conceivable the album could possibly come out in North America on Sept. 23, the Tuesday (traditional release day for new albums) following Cohen turning 80 years old on Sept. 21. Another fan site called 1HeckOfAGuy reports the album is slated for a Sept. 22 release according to Amazon's French site.
The new record would also be the shortest amount of time between studio albums for Cohen since the late '70s when "Death Of A Ladies' Man" was released in 1977 and was quickly followed up by 1979's "Recent Songs." Cohen released his last studio album entitled "Old Ideas" in early 2012, following that up with a lengthy world tour. The tour concluded in Auckland, New Zealand on Dec. 21, 2013.
There's also no word if Cohen might tour behind the alleged new album.
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