Canadian troubadour Leonard Cohen will release his twelfth studio album, Old Ideas, on January 31, 2012. The record will be his first studio release since 2004’s Dear Heather, and when the record is released, the classic artist will have released an album in six consecutive decades.

Old Songs contains ten songs and, according to a press release by the singer’s label, Columbia, they will feature themes fans familiar with Cohen’s work will be accustomed to. The songs, “poetically address some of the most profound quandaries of human existence – the relationship to a transcendent being, love, sexuality, loss and death,” says the press release. The same sentence probably could be applied to every album the singer has released.

After a fairly successful writing career that produced fiction and poetry throughout the 1960s, Cohen released his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, in 1967. First discovered by John Hammond (who had also discovered Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Bruce Springsteen, among many others), the album did not sell as well in the United States as it did in Europe, perhaps partly because of the singer’s relatively strange baritone voice and minimalist arrangements in the time when psychedelic bands were doing far better than folk musicians. The album did produce songs that are now considered classics in the Cohen catalog, including “Suzanne,” “So Long, Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.”

After this album, Cohen released albums regularly throughout the 1970s and 80s. He received high critical acclaim throughout these years and built a cult following. In the 1990s and 2000s, Cohen came to be more known on a wider scale as many artists began covering his songs. One of the most known is singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley’s 1994 cover of “Hallelujah,” which was first released on Cohen’s 1984 album Various Positions.

Cohen himself stayed out of the music spotlight during most of the 1990s, spending five years at a Zen monastery in California. After leaving, he began to again record albums and tour throughout the 2000s. No tour dates have yet been announced to support the album.

Canadian folk-pop legend Leonard Cohen will finally wrap up his world tour which has been going on for more than two years now, this year in Sin City.

According to AEG Live, promoter of the lengthy Cohen tour, the 76-year old musician will go back to the studio after his two-night engagement the Caesars Palace’s Colosseum in Las Vegas on December 10 and 11, to gather new material for a new studio set and his follow-up to “Dear Heather”, which came out in 2004.  But expect this new set to come out years from now as Cohen is known to invest so much time – and we mean “so much” – in writing a single track, more so an entire album.

The singer/songwriter is currently in Europe making up for lost time with a string of shows after a back injury sidelined him in the early part of the year.  His next stop will be New Zealand, Australia and Cambodia for the next two months, and by December, he is slated to wrap up his world tour with a string of US shows – Hawaii on December 4, Portland, OR on December 8 and finishing up with two nights in Las Vegas.

AEG Live announced that the tickets for Cohen’s last four shows for this year will be available to the public starting on September 24, Friday.

2010 Leonard Cohen Concert Tour
October 2010
1 – Stuttgart, Germany – Schleyerhalle
4 – Katowice, Poland – Spodek
7 – Moscow, Russia – Kremlin Palace
12 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – Arena Stozice
13 – Bratislava, Slovakia – Incheba Expo Arena
29 – Auckland, New Zealand – Vector Arena
31 – Wellington, New Zealand – TSB Arena

November 2010
1 – Wellington, New Zealand – TSB Arena
3 – Christchurch, New Zealand – Westpac Arena
6 – Brisbane, Australia – Brisbane Entertainment Centre
8, 9 – Sydney, Australia – Acer Arena
12, 13 – Melbourne, Australia – Rod Laver Arena
15 – Hobart, Australia – Derwent Entertainment Centre
24 – Perth, Australia – ME Bank Stadium
27 – Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Phnom Penh Olympic Stadium

December 2010
2 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Rogers Arena
5-6 – Oakland, CA – Paramount Theatre
8 – Portland, OR – Rose Quarter Theatre of the Clouds
10, 11 – Las Vegas, NV – The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

Its been 15 long years since Leonard Cohen toured the US and evidently now that he’s gotten a taste for it, he can’t stop. Cohen will set out on a second leg of shows starting with Sunrise, Florida on October 17 and concluding November 13 in San Jose, California. Leonard Cohen tour dates look to touch down in the markets he neglected before — Atlanta, Florida, Ohio.

Leonard Cohen broke his long touring silence earlier this year when he played New York’s Beacon Theatre. Cohen is currently touring Europe supporting his new album “Live in London” before he sets his course stateside. Those New Yorkers who missed Cohen at the Beacon can breathe easier as he will be coming to Madison Square Garden on October 23.

Tickets go onsale August 3 through Ticketmaster. Be sure to catch the 74-year old crooner because it may be the last time he performs signature tunes like “Hallelujah” and “Take Me to the End of Love.”

Leonard Cohen 2009 Tour Dates
Oct. 17 – Sunrise, FL @ BankAtlantic Center
Oct. 19 – Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum
Oct. 20 ? Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre
Oct. 22 ? Philadelphia, PA @ The Wachovia Spectrum
Oct. 23 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Oct. 25 ? Cleveland, OH @ Allen Theatre
Oct. 27 – Columbus, OH @ Palace Theatre
Oct. 29 ? Chicago, IL @ Rosemont Theatre
Nov. 1 – Asheville, NC @ Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
Nov. 3 – Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center
Nov. 5 ? Nashville, TN @ Tennessee Performing Arts Center
Nov. 7 – St. Louis, MO @ Fox Theatre
Nov. 9 – Kansas City, MO @ The Midland by AMC
Nov. 12 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace
Nov. 13 – San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion