Various Positions  by Leonard Cohen

The seventh album by the Canadian songwriter was released at the end of 1984. Various Positions marked a change in Leonard Cohen's musical style as he set aside acoustic arrangements and incorporated synthesizers into his sound. The album came five years after his previous recording work.

The result of Various Positions stemmed from Cohen's enthusiasm for a Casio synthesizer he had purchased. The album's opening track, which was also the biggest hit, Dance Me to the End of Love, was written on this machine. All the compositions are his own, and it is remarkable that the backing vocals feature the name of Jennifer Warnes, with whom he had collaborated on his previous album, as Cohen's voice dominates all the songs. Various Positions was recorded in New York and produced by John Lissauer.

The album did quite well in terms of sales in Europe. In Great Britain, it sold 60,000 copies and in Spain another 50,000. The highest position on a chart it reached was in Finland, where it was No. 2.