Have Leonard Cohen's albums from the beginning plus all his published work, is a consummate poet imho and the singing follows on from that. For me the 'depressing' label seemed to be applied by those more interested in listening to the happy clappy pop music way back then rather than thinking a songwriter might actually have something to say. The same was postured about Bob Dylan but I always enjoyed reading their output as much as listening to them (& others) singing the texts.