Check out Irving Layton as well (another Canadian poet/professor). Really good stuff, and clearly influenced Leonard Cohen's writing.
Seriously, he's an excellent songwriter, but much of his music is ruined by the choices made in terms of 80s synth stuff and disappointing backing vocals. 'Birds on a Wire' is a great album, because it doesn't have any of that nonsense in it. Some of his other albums are really good too, but I'd say half of his discography is disappointing, despite having excellent songwriting.
At the risk of -20 downvotes, I was going to say the same thing.
The synths I can handle.
But the backing vocals ... my god man ... I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It's beyond kitsch.
You gotta take it as a 'package'.
I find that people who are more lyrical tend to like him. Musical people less so.
Often the chords make no sense, they go back and forth, there's no progression - but then you realize they are following the cadence of his prose, and then it kind of makes sense.
He's almost like a beat poet - where there's some 'muzak' in the background.
If anyone reading this can sing, start drinking whiskey and smoking cigars. You'll die early, but before you do, perfect your Cohen voice and fix this.