Watershed
K.D. LANG
(Nonesuch )
For her first album of new material in eight years, k.d. lang decided to take on the role of sole producer for the first time. The result, Watershed, tills new turf for the flawless singer while retaining much of her signature sound that started to emerge in early '90s with Ingenue. The songs, written or cowritten by lang, are uniformly elegant, largely subdued and driven by nuance more than the grand gesture. In fact, k.d lang the impassioned belter is virtually absent from Watershed, in her place a woman bent on turning inward in a kind of appraisal of her life thus far.
If that all sounds dangerously ponderous, it's not. She's mostly concerned with matters of the heart, although often with a fresh twist. On "Sunday," an ode to her favorite day of the week, lang sings, "Six days a week, waiting, I spend waiting/ To be spending/ Sunday afternoon, naked in your room/ Love is all consumed." She does engage in some self-examination — "the promise of my prime, fading on the vine" — but Watershed is no pity party.
Lang shapes her contralto into a masterfully controlled instrument laced with a sexy sigh. And she displays a canny instinct for the precise time to turn up the heat, making these relatively fervent moments all the more effective.
The 11 songs all possess artfully crafted melodies, but if there's an overarching downside to Watershed, it's that they tend to come off, initially at least, as a bit amorphous. It's a good thing lang signed with Nonesuch, where she's not apt to hear an exec say, "I don't hear a single" — none of the songs really reach out and grab you.
Fully appreciating the new disc requires concentrated, preferably solitary, listening. You have to play k.d.'s game of inner-directedness. With this approach, you hear the melodic distinctions between the tunes, the subtle meanings of lyrics when lovingly caressed by her voice.
The organ solo on "Sunday" that serpentines through the chord changes is a marvel of subtlety. Earning second billing after lang's voice are the gorgeous string arrangements by her longtime bandmate Teddy Borowiecki; they find just the right balance between background color and invigorating focal point — on a few tunes, the strings are allowed to carry the outro. On the Brazilian-styled "Upstream," mildly discordant swoops pair with fluttering, upper-register trills.
Watershed is one of those albums with real staying power and should offer newfound delights even after many listens. 3.5 stars —Eric Snider
Odelay – Deluxe Edition
BECK
(Geffen/UMe)
After his 1994 major label debut, Mellow Gold, Beck obliterated the Gen-X "Loser" stigma with Odelay. The landmark record — Beck's most cohesive amalgam of ghetto-blasting soul, robotic blip-rock and slippery funk — enjoys the 10th-anniversary treatment, albeit a couple of years late. The two-disc reissue is as stellar for what listeners previously haven't heard as for what they have. The first disc's remaster of the original album is followed by three tracks from the original Dust Brothers-helmed sessions, the barely controlled chaos of "Inferno" an obvious highlight. But it's the second disc, comprised of remixes and previously import-only B-sides, that's the find here. U.N.K.L.E.'s two-turntables-and-the-kitchen-sink take on "Where It's At" is inspired, as is the punked-up "Devil's Haircut" remix, "American Wasteland." Perhaps the real revelation, though, is the album that Odelay could've been. Acoustic tracks like "Feather in Your Cap" and the harrowing "Brother" show how Beck could shine in pre-Dust Brothers mode. There is also a pair of poignant country-blues covers. Such departures may not have jibed with the chameleon's breakthrough effort, but their U.S. debut will make audiences wonder how they've done without this stuff for so long. 4 stars —Amanda Schurr
Fire the Cannons
JET LAG GEMINI
(Doghouse)
A New Jersey rock foursome with an international pedigree (a Russian, an American and a pair of Romanian brothers), Jet Lag Gemini made its mark in the pop-punk world with Warped Tour dates and the '06 EP, Business. Their debut full-length, Fire the Cannons, is a visceral, largely consistent debut album teeming with verve. The emotive vocals and grabby hooks adhere to the pop-punk formula but are executed with superior finesse. The band's secret weapon is guitarist Vlad Gheorghiu, who punctuates most numbers with sinewy riffs and soaring solos that recall the likes of Slash or Joe Perry. 3.5 stars —Wade Tatangelo
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2008.