March 03, 2005
K.D. Lang
I came home from Victor Harbor to the apartment late this morning and found Suzanne was listening to this:
I've never followed the trajectory of Kathy Dawn Lang's career and so I do not know the country-informed Shadowland (1988) and Absolute Torch and Twang (1989)—and so I cannot compare her to Emmylou Harris.
Nor did I go hear KD Lang on her recent Australian tour in February, which featured the city orchestra's of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide as her backing band. However, from the little I have heard I recognize Lang's brillant voice and her artistic sensibility.
Hymns of the 49th Parallel is a Canadian songbook as it is a covers album of fellow Canadian song writers -----Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Jane Siberry.I do not know the work of Ron Sexsmith and Bruce Cockburn. A review.
I find the album a bit too uniform in somber sentiment and veers towards a risk-averse, adult-contemporary pop. However, Lang's passionate vocal delivery is capable of drawing out the pain in some of the songs especially Cohen’s "Hallelujah."