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Music

Hallelujah, A Leonard Cohen Techno Remix Exists and It's Perfect

Hear Berlin producer Paul Kalkbrenner's rework of the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter's latest single "You Want It Darker."
Leonard Cohen photo via Wikimedia Commons

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Inductee of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Companion of the Order of Canada. Over the course of his lengthy career, legendary singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen has won pretty much every musical and non-musical award that matters, and he's still putting out albums at the ripe age of 82. Still, there's one thing he hasn't accomplished yet, and that's put out a throbbing, festival-ready techno remix.

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Until today that is. For his latest single "You Want It Darker," off his forthcoming fourteenth studio album of the same name, Cohen enlisted Berlin producer Paul Kalkbrenner to rework the lyrically bleak track. His version—which he recently debuted at Lollapalooza Berlin—stretches the song out to just over seven minutes, adding a minimal beat, while preserving the backing vocals of Montreal's Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue choir.

There's no word on who orchestrated this pairing—our money's on Cohen's son Adam (who produced the new record) or some ambitious record executive—but it's certainly a better fit than the time "Hallelujah" was used in the Watchmen movie. Listen to it below, Cohen's You Want It Darker comes out Oct. 21 via Sony Music.

Max Mertens is on Twitter.