Avalanche

“Avalanche” from Songs Of Love And Hate(1971)

Taken from his poem “I Stepped Into An Avalanche” (though altered and edited considerably), “Avalanche” is Cohen’s examination of self-loathing and the pain that depression inflicts on others. It is the quintessential song on the aptly titled album Songs Of Love And Hate because it passes both of those perennial checkpoints, and is also a quintessential Leonard Cohen song for this same reason. “Avalanche” is not a song you hear so much as feel. The cataleptic narrator — at once the personification and caricature of disorder — writhes and wonders at the suffocating dread he sees as he simultaneously destroys everything around him. This one should come with a warning label. Morrissey, Robert Smith, Trent Reznor, Nick Cave — eat your cold, cold hearts out.