Word: langs
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With her clear, dazzlingly romantic voice, there's never been much doubt that k.d. lang is capable of greatness. The only question has been whether she could find the sort of material that would match her maverick sensibilities with those of the eclectic mix of country expatriates, torch-song aficionados and pop devotees that make up her following...
...seven albums over the course of a decade, lang has deployed her vocal versatility to impressive if not always winning effect--nimbly hopscotching between genres but also making it difficult to know just what you would get when you unwrapped one of her CDs. First came the loose-limbed country-and-western style of her early work like Angel with a Lariat, followed by the sleek pop-country phase epitomized in the album Ingenue and its smash single Constant Craving. Then, in recent releases such as All You Can Eat and Drag, she veered into torch songs and heavy ballads...
...appealing new CD, Invincible Summer (Warner Bros.), slides easily into the groove that has proved to be the most comfortable fit between lang and her audience: the smoothly upbeat pop romanticism at which she excels. The theme of Summer, she told Billboard, is "Brazilian surf-pop" and is a by-product of her newfound infatuation with tropical music and the sun-kissed sounds of Southern California, where she recently relocated after living for several years on a farm outside Vancouver. Lang has said she owes much of the inspiration for Summer to several weeks spent listening to old Mamas...
Part of the credit goes to her new producer, Damian LeGassick, who until now was chiefly known as a keyboardist for, and protege of, the influential British electronic producer William Orbit. LeGassick met lang in 1998 through Madonna, whose music Orbit was producing at the time. Wisely avoiding the fancy bells and whistles that many electronic producers seem unable to resist, LeGassick has instead imbued Summer with an organic, retro feel. Although it may lack some of the lushness of lang's earlier work, it creates a dramatic counterpoint to her shimmering voice. He opens the bossa nova-tinged Summerfling...
...Praising Lang's efforts, McLain pointed out that "she's someone who might have gone to Washington five years ago, but now she's starting her own non-profit...