New Skin For The Old Ceremony
by Leonard Cohen
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Leonard Cohen bestography
New Skin For The Old Ceremony is ranked 8th best out of 27 albums by Leonard Cohen on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Leonard Cohen is Songs Of Leonard Cohen which is ranked number 138 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 9,648.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to New Skin For The Old Ceremony on YouTube
New Skin For The Old Ceremony track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
New Skin For The Old Ceremony rankings
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New Skin For The Old Ceremony ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 201 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 03/07/2026 13:32 | BoxFL | 2,766 | 51/100 |
| ! | 03/03/2026 00:16 | JacobMullis | 775 | 88/100 |
| ! | 02/08/2026 18:49 | dukeboxkool | 2,211 | 72/100 |
| ! | 02/07/2026 02:30 |  Brandon8 | 1,047 | 89/100 |
| ! | 01/11/2026 09:40 | spinout | 3,452 | 81/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.6/100, a mean average of 78.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.3.
New Skin For The Old Ceremony favourites
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New Skin For The Old Ceremony comments
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Insanely underrated album- wish he had cut Field Commander Cohen though
Compared to the preceding three albums, this one is relatively patchy, it does have two or three songs that are up there with his very best in Chelsea Hotel #2, Who By Fire and Take This Longing, but overall as an album it is certainly not as consistent as Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Songs From A Room or Songs Of Love And Hate.
An underrated album. New skin for the old ceremony, isn't quite in the same class as his first three albums but it's still a very good record. It features some fantastic songs such as opener, is this what you wanted, the excellent, Chelsea hotel, and, lover, lover, lover, and that's just the first three tracks. Elsewhere, there's other strong cuts in, there is a war, who by fire, and, field commander Cohen. An overlooked classic.
Not as lyrically spectacular as some of his other records, but the orchestration is far more experimental and unconventional, and the record holds two of Cohen's greatest songs, Lover Lover Lover and Is This What You Wanted, especially the last of the two is spectacular built up, almost paused but then lived up again, with a Cohen off beat. Amazing.
junodog4 08/01/2012 17:07 | #47581 | TOP COMMENT
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Not quite up to Cohen's usual ceiling of lyrical perfection, but close. This is an overlooked and understated album. Not brilliant, but still great.
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