Watershed : k.d. lang : Review : Rolling Stone

In 2004, k.d. lang started paying close attention to one damn attractive asset: her own voice. She exiled the cute concepts and oversinging to make Hymns of the 49th Parallel a great collection of often famous songs by Canadian pop songwriters. That was lang's creative breakthrough, but now she has written her first collection in eight years, titling it Watershed. After the explosive growth of 49th Parallel, could lang possibly re-embrace distraction?

No. Watershed is first-rate singer-songwriter music; lang fuses the various styles she has tapped — country, pop, Brazilian — with an alluring integration. She produced herself, and when a steel guitar waltzes in with charming rightness on the otherwise art-song "I Dream of Spring," or soulful soprano tone floods the symphonic air on "Close Your Eyes," her work sings. With Watershed, k.d. lang does what the gifted and the lucky always should: improve as time passes.