Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(40 customer reviews) 60 of 62 people found the following review helpful
At the corner of Dreamy & Divine,
April 12, 2011 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Sing It Loud (Audio CD)
Although k.d. lang came out of the Canadian country tradition, she broke the mold with her hit album "Ingénue" in 1992, and she's gone her own way ever since. She has a voice like no one else. The moment she begins to sing, a spell of impossibly romantic longing is cast. "Sing It Loud," a new album of original ballads, all but two of them written or co-written by lang herself, is the epitome of her emotive style, the quintessence of desperate, delirious passion. It's an instant classic.
k.d.'s debt to the heartbreaking ballads of Roy Orbison is evident on the first track, "I Confess," with its insistent drums, lonely steel guitar, and wall-of-sound backing, but she puts her own stamp on it and on each of the songs that follow. "A Sleep with No Dreaming" and "The Water's Edge" are quieter and even more tender and plaintive, but the mood shifts on the fourth cut, "Perfect Word." Suffused with a Muscle Shoals soulfulness, it's one of my favorite numbers on the disc. The...Read more
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
k d Back in the Saddle!,
April 13, 2011 R. M. Desjardins "R. Mark Desjardins" (Vancouver, B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sing It Loud (Audio CD)
This reviewer fondly remembers k d when she tooled around the Strathcona hood of Vancouver, Canada in her 1963 powder blue Mercury with the slanted rear window that lowered. Wide as a whale, this living room on wheels announced her presence in between world tours. In her early days during gigs at the Commodore Ballroom, she was fond of having a go go dancer on stage with her. Pure kitschy art! Sadly, kathy dawn left the hood years ago for the far flung metropolis of Los Angeles. In the intervening years she delved into pop standards, and melodramatic orchestrated nods to fellow Canadian songwriters. Lang's expanded musical directions broadened her commercial appeal for sure, but after her Invincible Summer recording, her previously prolific song writing seemed to run dry.
I confess wondering if k d would ever return to her roots and what made her so exciting and relevant in the first place. In the opening track of her new recording, "Sing it Loud" with her...Read more
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Sing it Loud, Sing it Proud,
April 13, 2011 Rudy Palma "The Writing Fiend" (NJ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sing It Loud (Audio CD)
(A deluxe version of the album with four additional tracks is available on lang's official Web site.)
k.d. lang has earned the rare right to record exactly the material she wants, how she wants, and still expect an audience, and "Sing It Loud" reflects that with its self-assured, but often self-indulgent, songcraft - a formula that is ultimately winning due to her charisma and raw talent.
Sharp-edged hooks don't run aplenty, so the songs do not generally demand individual attention, but they also sparkle with spotless polish, the result of an obviously meticulous attention to detail that makes the album play highly satisfyingly.
That lang has recorded the album she wanted shows in the details. "Sing It Loud" is the kind of record a musician makes for his or herself, which means it will surely delight her most devoted but divide those who appreciate her on a more selective basis.
The songs are co-written with Joe Pisapia, who left his...Read more
