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Editorial Review:
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
Deceptively simple, Watershed highlights what lang does best - fulsome, ballads sung with precision-timing, intelligence and a humorous twist.
'A masterpiece that holds its place next to, maybe even slightly above, Ingénue.'
(I Dream Of Spring)'The most beautiful song I've heard in the 21st century.'
'Watershed' is the tenth studio album from K.D. Lang and her first to contain original material since 2000's 'Invincible Summer'. Recorded in California and produced by Lang herself, the album continues with the mix of classic contemporarypop and country that has graced her previous work and has earned Lang multiple Grammy awards.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Strong sound, weakish songs There's a lot to like about this album. kd's voice is beyond reproach, and she keeps things smooth and restrained throughout, which I like, never approaching the 'Constant Wailing' that marrs some of her work. This is just personal preference of course, but I definitely prefer the more laid-back kd.
Production is good too, and the backings are lush and interesting, somewhat reminiscent of 'Ingenue' at times, but this is no bad thing. It really is a very musical album. Almost easy listening, you could... more info
A Watershed that leads nowhere This is the first LP by K D Lang that I have bought. Indeed, I was not familiar with her until very recently as a result of the publicity surrounding the release of Watershed. The publicity and the reviews of Watershed placed Ms Lang among the great and serious female singers of popular music. So I chided myself for never having heard of her and off I went and ordered Watershed. My experience is that Watershed does no live up to the hype. It is clear that Ms Lang has some musical ability. She co-writes... more info
Classic KD Lang. Just listened to Watershed for the first time today. This is a stunningly good album. Life is too short to be without it.
What a comeback.. An album of superb quality - the vocals, songs, production and lyrics (I think Supertad may have been listening to a Kate Nash album by mistake?) are all without exception, top notch. Up there with anything she's done before..and could quite possibly be her finest work to date. Wonderful
