Watershed

K. D. Lang

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 5, 2008)
• Original Release Date: February 5, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B000XUO6T8
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,931 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk

Watershed is the first major project from celebrated Canadian chanteuse k.d. lang since 2004's Hymns of the 49th Parallel. Where Hymns explored the music of fellow Canadians such as Ron Sexsmith, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, Watershed represents the first set of original songs from lang in around eight years. Self-produced and arranged by musicians she has worked with a lot in the past, the most striking aspect of the album is its intimate, homely feel. Adding to the cozy ambience is the fact that Watershed brings most of lang's musical passions and influences--jazz, country, folk, bossa nova--under one roof, lending the project a dreamy, mellifluous coherence. But if the musical landscape is mellow and easy to traverse, Lang's lyrics can be less comfortable. Using her laid-back, often ethereal arrangements as sugar-candied coating for thornier topics, the singer serenades with stories of broken love, occasionally harsh self-analysis and the obligatory forays into existential angst. These contrastive elements only serve to make the album stronger, adding emotional weight to the airless arrangements of "Once in a While," and the delicate "Close Your Eyes," and conjuring up images of beauty on the string-laden "I Dream of Spring," and the wonderfully lazy "Sunday". Intelligent, mature and sophisticated, Watershed is the kind of perfect pop album it's difficult not to fall in love with immediately and forever. --Paul Sullivan

Product Description

Watershed, K.D. Lang’s second Nonesuch album, indeed represents a significant juncture in her 25-year career as a recording artist-a collection of eleven new original songs produced, for the first time, by Lang herself. As with any challenge she’s met in her unparalleled career, lang is a natural behind the boards in the studio. Watershed has an intimate feel and a sophisticated sound that highlights the warmth in Lang’s voice, the maturity of her songwriting and the simple beauty of her arrangements. The Grammy Award-winning artist draws on her wealth of experience with an impressively wide range of genres to fashion a revealing portrait of the artist as she is right now. As Lang explains, "Watershed is like a culmination of everything I’ve done — there’s a little bit of jazz, a little country, a little of the Ingénue sound, a little Brazilian touch. It really feels like the way I hear music, this mash-up of genres, and I think it reflects all the styles that have preceded this in my catalogue."

K.D. Lang Photos More from K.D. Lang

Watershed Deluxe Limited Edition

Hymns of the 49th Parallel

Ingénue

Shadowland

Live by Request (2001)

Absolute Torch and Twang

Drag

All You Can Eat

Reintarnation [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Live by Request [LIVE]

Invincible Summer

A Truly Western Experience [EXTRA TRACKS]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

97 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite stuff., February 5, 2008

By	Mr.Style Joe "music connoisseur" (Boston,MA) - See all my reviews

Four time Grammy winner k.d. lang's new album "Watershed" is the first album of newly written material since 2000's "Invincible Summer".
For a while, Lang wasn't writing songs anywhere.
In the intervening years, she has recorded cover versions and duets, but nothing has emerged from her own pen.
Fans who were constantly craving another album like "Ingenue" wondered if she had lost the knack.
Writer's block was the problem, apparently. And the catalyst behind the unleashing of Watershed's sequence of love songs was that the Canadian singer/songwriter has found happiness with her new love.
"I wondered that myself," she says. "I think that when I start out on any new record".
But now "Watershed" is finished, ready, good and immaculately delivered.
So why the lengthy wait? "I got writer's block. There were a number of contributory factors. One was 9/11, which turned the atmosphere in America - politically, emotionally and artistically - on its ear. Afterwards I couldn't write love songs. They just seemed so frivolous".
It features eleven new songs written and recorded in 2007 for Nonesuch label, and is also the first self-produced collection of her 25-year career.
It doesn't disappoint. But, please, don't rush ! Don't expect to be hooked at the first listening.
Should you wish to spend some time letting these songs get under your skin, then they will slowly reveal their charms - and occasionally, as on the breathily magnificent "Shadow and the Frame", match lang's former glories. Lyrically, she's not a very interesting songwriter, but then words aren't really her thing.
kd lang's voice is a remarkable instrument, and it's for its instrumental qualities that she writes her long, languorous melodies framed in elaborately simple arrangements, leading to the creation of an intensely moody mood.
It's pretty exquisite stuff - the string charts are just lovely - and stands as a (self-produced) summary of the genres she's dabbled in. Samba, country and jazz are referenced with a sophisticated passing wink, but no more.This beautiful CD sees her re-embracing the gorgeous balladry of "Ingenue", infusing everything with a gentle country twang in the process.
"I Dream of Spring", "Once in a While" and "Sunday" are magisterial, showcasing that knife-through-butter voice.
"Flame of the Uninspired", is full of unsentimental regret, and the growly "Jealous Dog" recalls a female Johnny Cash.
Sounding more than ever like a velvet-voiced Patsy Cline, Lang is on near-perfect form on this astonishing album:lang always appears perfectly matched to her material, so convincing is her interpretation of everything she touches.
There is huge pleasure to be had from the rich, sensual power of her voice.
Twentyfive years on, k.d. lang, now 46, can still evoke the sting of adolescent infatuation.

Rated: 4.5 stars

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars kd lang SIMPLY AMAZING, February 8, 2008

By	John T. Borek "Johny B." (Grand Rapids, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Finally, a new kd lang album, and one she wrote and produced herself. "Watershed" is like back to the good old days when she was releasing her good music. This reminds me of "All You Can Eat" and "Absolute Torch and Twang", her finest. And it's great to see her writing again with Ben Mink after all these years. It's a beautiful album from an incredible voice. Every time I listen to this CD I like it more and more, it will grow on you. And that's a sign of great music, it's not instant, but takes its time to draw you in and then you're hooked. I love kd lang and this is as good as it gets. It's hard to decide what I'd like to hear next from her, an album of great covers or old standards or more of this same kind. Either way it doesn't matter, as long as we don't have to wait this long again.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming home, February 12, 2008

By	Antonio M Vazquezpausa "amvp" (Miami, Fl United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kd has come back home.That is to write gorgeous songs such as I Dream of Spring and Close Your Eyes with pal Ben Mink.We fans have waited for such a complete album for long.So embark and dream along with the unique Kathryn.Throughout the journey,you will feel like you are in a coffee shop surrounded by country,pop and jazz musicians,all of them trying to accompany this unparallel voice that thrives on lows and ride triumphantly on highs.Bon voyage!