Released 1989 by Warner Bros.
(This is going to take me a loooooooooooong time, this listening to every album on my iTunes.)
I really like k.d. lang. Her voice is rich and expressive. She can growl, yee-haw and lull you into a smokey nightclub reverie. That said, I'll have to say that I'm not a big fan of this album. According to iTunes, it's a "consistently great album". Yeah. It probably is. Rolling Stone gave it a favorable review when it was released back in 1989, as well. But what I've decided after one full listen and another 1/2 way (it plays now, as I type) is that I'm kinda bored. I'm not drawn into wanting to listen to it...if one or two songs popped up during a shuffle rotation, I probably wouldn't skip them, but I wouldn't put them on a playlist, either. Except for one song, track 6, "Wallflower Waltz", which I could easily hear re-imagined by Margot Timmons on another Trinity Sessions like recording. (High praise since I truly love that album and wish I had the new version.) The longing trill of the mandolin is a sound that appeals to my own melancholy chords and lang's smooth lower register evokes the sad ache of a gal watching others invited to dance as she is passed by.
I can easily picture the PBS special shown during pledge drives. k.d. lang croonin' with her easy, breezy vocals. The mostly white, mid-40's audience in a place like Gammage Auditorium (sorry, I don't know where else to say that might be more universally recognized), sitting in their seats, politely tapping their toes or keeping time with their hand on their knee, smiling and bobbin' their heads from left to right in a nice one-two, one-two. Some people happily singing along, because they know all the words...
If someone told me that this was one of their favorite lang albums, I wouldn't knock 'em. It's probably a great record and I'm still going to delete it, with the exception of track 6, from the ole' iTunes. There are at least two other albums of hers on here that I like a whole lot more and have listened to numerous times--even before I had a computer or iTunes.
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