k.d. lang

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• Genre: Adult Alternative
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About

It's hard to think of another modern singer as naturally gifted as k.d. lang. She's as subtle and sensitive as many of today's vocalists are brassy and bombastic, so it's a mystery why she's released so little music of lasting quality. Her early retro/cowbilly and country records were a breath of fresh air in the newly rock-oriented Nashville of the late 1980s. Riding a serious Patsy Cline jones to stardom with Shadowlands (1988), the Canadian crooner crossed over with the '50s Pop stylings of Ingenue. She experimented with that approach on the daring misfire All You Can Eat before getting dark and loungey on Drag. While her voice can handle all these stylistic changes, her songwriting can't. That may be why her finest moments often have her interpreting standards such as Cole Porter's "So in Love." But lang doesn't want to sit still: sun-and-sea drenched '60s pop album Invincible Summer recalls every Golden State act from the Mommas and the Poppas to the Association. While the Burt Bacharach style ballad "Suddenly" is a standout, most of these songs still sound like prefabrications rather than the real thing. Which is odd, because Lang's talent is as real as you can get. Her fans are waiting for her to realize it.

- Nick Dedina