NEW YORK, Sept 21 — A posthumous album entitled Thanks for the Dance from Leonard Cohen is set for release this fall, Sony announced yesterday.

To tease the November 22 record his label released The Goal, a brief, quasi-spoken word track that features piano and acoustic guitar and is based on the Canadian icon’s poem of the same name.

"I can’t leave my house,” Cohen recites in his signature smoky deep voice. "Or answer the phone / I’m going down again / But I’m not alone.”

Cohen died in November 2016 at age 82, just weeks after he released his last album, You Want It Darker, whose lyrics reflect heavily on death, spirituality and his place in the universe.

His son Adam masterminded the posthumous release, which features contributions from artists including Beck, Damien Rice and Feist.

"In composing and arranging the music for his words, we chose his most characteristic musical signatures, in this way keeping him with us,” Adam Cohen said in a statement.

"What moves me most about the album is the startled response of those who have heard it. ‘Leonard lives!’ they say, one after the other.” — AFP