Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Review
"I’ve lost my edge," k.d. lang laments on Habit of Mind, a sultry highlight of Sing It Loud; "I’ve spent most of my life running in circles… what a shame." It’s a daring lyric: after all, many would say these words sum up lang's post-Ingénue career, her subsequent music often drifting towards the bland and directionless. Certainly, when in early 2010 the Canadian torch singer released Recollection, a retrospective set, it seemed like a resigned acknowledgement that her glory days were in the past.
Which is exactly why Sing It Loud is so instantly striking. Recollection could easily have marked the end of the road, but lang has instead turned it into a fresh start. Recording in a band for the first time in a quarter-century seems to have provided a much-needed shot of adrenaline: opener I Confess begins adrift in the same acoustic prettiness which has characterised her later work, before a dramatically slashing guitar jolts the listener awake.
And lang is certainly awake: her vocals haven’t sounded this energetic and playful in many years. On I Confess she slides up and down scales like a purring pole dancer, a reminder that as well as perfect pitch and exquisite control, she has always had an incredibly, mysteriously sexy voice. I Confess is swiftly followed by the alluring A Sleep With No Dreams, which finds lang gorgeously swooning and sighing over sparse, brooding rockabilly with a deliciously gothic Angelo Badalamenti edge.
After a bold opening, lang's Siss Bang Boom collaborators fade into the background, their music wobbling on the narrow edge between languid and tepid. Fortunately, lang herself remains utterly arresting: the lukewarm lounge-music of the title-track would be soporific if it weren't for her superbly feline delivery, half kitten, half lion. She likewise rescues the grizzled countryisms of Sugar Buzz with vocal flourishes which leave the listener – but not lang – breathless. Unfortunately, even this revered voice can't breathe life into the hopelessly generic, sub-Hejira melancholy of Inglewood.
That lang is a greater and more radiant talent than the rest of the Siss Bang Boom combined is obvious, but so is the fact that in mysterious ways this strange marriage has helped her find her feet and voice again. If she needs them, we do too, as long as it produces songs as rich, masterful and seductive as these.
--Jaime Gill
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
CD Description
With Sing it Loud, her first studio disc in three years, k.d. lang is, in one sense, revisiting her roots. She's backed by a new, full-time band, Siss Boom Bang, which recalls, in spirit if not sound, the exhilarating work she created at the start of her career with her original band, The Reclines. But she's also breaking new ground as a songwriter and producer collaborating on this elegant yet rough-around-the-edges set with multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia, previously a member of jam-band stalwarts Guster, and penning most of these tunes with Pisapia and her new band-mates Daniel Clarke and Joshua Grange.
lang returned to Nashville – a town that originally embraced her iconoclastic blend of country and pop when she released Shadowland back in 1988 – for the Sing it Loud sessions, recording it at Pisapia's backyard studio, where he'd also tracked Guster's 2010 Easy Wonderful. She and Pisapia keep the sound impressively in the moment, retaining a palpable live-band feel throughout. Sing it Loud embraces both the dramatic and easygoing; lead-off track, and first single, ‘I Confess’, is all torch and twang; this impassioned, first-person narrative about romantic longing and reconciliation – proving once again that the best part of breaking up is indeed making up – reaches a stirring, Roy Orbison-like crescendo of strings. While lang's previous studio album, 2008's Watershed, featured strikingly understated vocal performances, alternately contemplative and sensual, this time she returns to belting it out whenever the songs, and the emotions, demand. On ‘Sugar Buzz’, lang starts off gently but thrillingly builds up to a bluesy fervour, exploring the upper reaches of her range.
Conversely, on tracks like the inspirational ‘Sing it Loud’ and the gently nostalgic ‘Inglewood’, she keeps her performances softer and more intimate, though no less compelling; these impeccably arranged, small-combo tracks recall the classic country-rock feel of fellow Canadian Neil Young's Harvest. She also offers a graceful rendition of the Talking Heads' ‘Heaven’, another thoughtfully chosen cover that she immediately makes her own. At this point, lang's way with borrowed material is downright legendary: her breathtaking performance of Leonard Cohen's ‘Hallelujah’ was the high point of the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver, seen by a worldwide television audience.
lang returned to Nashville – a town that originally embraced her iconoclastic blend of country and pop when she released Shadowland back in 1988 – for the Sing it Loud sessions, recording it at Pisapia's backyard studio, where he'd also tracked Guster's 2010 Easy Wonderful. She and Pisapia keep the sound impressively in the moment, retaining a palpable live-band feel throughout. Sing it Loud embraces both the dramatic and easygoing; lead-off track, and first single, ‘I Confess’, is all torch and twang; this impassioned, first-person narrative about romantic longing and reconciliation – proving once again that the best part of breaking up is indeed making up – reaches a stirring, Roy Orbison-like crescendo of strings. While lang's previous studio album, 2008's Watershed, featured strikingly understated vocal performances, alternately contemplative and sensual, this time she returns to belting it out whenever the songs, and the emotions, demand. On ‘Sugar Buzz’, lang starts off gently but thrillingly builds up to a bluesy fervour, exploring the upper reaches of her range.
Conversely, on tracks like the inspirational ‘Sing it Loud’ and the gently nostalgic ‘Inglewood’, she keeps her performances softer and more intimate, though no less compelling; these impeccably arranged, small-combo tracks recall the classic country-rock feel of fellow Canadian Neil Young's Harvest. She also offers a graceful rendition of the Talking Heads' ‘Heaven’, another thoughtfully chosen cover that she immediately makes her own. At this point, lang's way with borrowed material is downright legendary: her breathtaking performance of Leonard Cohen's ‘Hallelujah’ was the high point of the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver, seen by a worldwide television audience.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Hailed as the 'best singer of her generation' by sometime duet partner Tony Bennett, kd lang attracts a certain fanfare every time she releases new material. Yet particular excitement surrounds this album, for it's the first made entirely with a full band of her own since two releases with The Reclines that launched her over 20 years ago.
Her beautiful voice is very much to the fore on this new album of pared-down songs with often nothing more than an acoustic guitar and maybe a bit of slide guitar action to obscure it.
With her new band the Siss Boom Bang she has returned to Nashville, where she made her first hit album "Shadowland" and has gone right back to basics to produce an album that is mournful, meaningful and most importantly showcases those gorgeous pipes.
Recorded in Nashville, largely live in the studio, there's a palpable energy to these 10 tracks.
The original plan had been to record three songs in eight days, yet they worked so quickly and well together that, in the blink of an eye, a full album was born. The musical director Joe Pisapia contributed the sighing, summery title track and co-wrote five other songs.
It will come as no surprise to fans to hear that the heart melting properties (whatever your sexual persuasion) of lang's wondrous vocals remain intact.
She has an innate way of swooping between notes, caressing a melody and instilling it with such yearning.
Right from the piano openings of lead single I Confess through the dramatic opening dilemma of "A Sleep With No Dreaming" - "A hundred thousand reasons why I should walk away, a hundred thousand more make me stay" - she seduces.
Yet there's a sense that these mid-tempo torch ballads have become so much her staple that they don't stretch her enough. When she first fully realized her trademark sound on "Ingenue", it was combined with such classic material.
Whether anything on "Sing It Loud" will stand up like "Constant Craving" in years to come is doubtful. It's hard to be critical, however, when every note is so immaculately performed and placed like exquisite brushes of paint on a sweeping canvas - with a particular nod to Joshua Grange on baritone guitar and dobro.
In addition to the original material, there's a lilting, breathy cover of the Talking Heads song "Heaven".
Strangely, it retains a real sense of the original's soul even though performed by a vocalist so different to David Byrne.
Other highlights include the aforementioned title track, the sultry "Perfect Word", and the electrified crunchier chords of "Habit Of Mine".
It's great to hear this timeless artist so relaxed and enjoying herself.
Perhaps if she continues her collaborative relationship with The Siss Boom Bang, future
recordings could be even more special. R. Wilbie.
Her beautiful voice is very much to the fore on this new album of pared-down songs with often nothing more than an acoustic guitar and maybe a bit of slide guitar action to obscure it.
With her new band the Siss Boom Bang she has returned to Nashville, where she made her first hit album "Shadowland" and has gone right back to basics to produce an album that is mournful, meaningful and most importantly showcases those gorgeous pipes.
Recorded in Nashville, largely live in the studio, there's a palpable energy to these 10 tracks.
The original plan had been to record three songs in eight days, yet they worked so quickly and well together that, in the blink of an eye, a full album was born. The musical director Joe Pisapia contributed the sighing, summery title track and co-wrote five other songs.
It will come as no surprise to fans to hear that the heart melting properties (whatever your sexual persuasion) of lang's wondrous vocals remain intact.
She has an innate way of swooping between notes, caressing a melody and instilling it with such yearning.
Right from the piano openings of lead single I Confess through the dramatic opening dilemma of "A Sleep With No Dreaming" - "A hundred thousand reasons why I should walk away, a hundred thousand more make me stay" - she seduces.
Yet there's a sense that these mid-tempo torch ballads have become so much her staple that they don't stretch her enough. When she first fully realized her trademark sound on "Ingenue", it was combined with such classic material.
Whether anything on "Sing It Loud" will stand up like "Constant Craving" in years to come is doubtful. It's hard to be critical, however, when every note is so immaculately performed and placed like exquisite brushes of paint on a sweeping canvas - with a particular nod to Joshua Grange on baritone guitar and dobro.
In addition to the original material, there's a lilting, breathy cover of the Talking Heads song "Heaven".
Strangely, it retains a real sense of the original's soul even though performed by a vocalist so different to David Byrne.
Other highlights include the aforementioned title track, the sultry "Perfect Word", and the electrified crunchier chords of "Habit Of Mine".
It's great to hear this timeless artist so relaxed and enjoying herself.
Perhaps if she continues her collaborative relationship with The Siss Boom Bang, future
recordings could be even more special. R. Wilbie.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
k d lang retreated from country music in 1992 with the iconic "Ingenue" but thereafter flirted with several styles and seemingly uncertain as to what direction she should take.
But, nearly twenty years on, she has returned to Nashville, Tennessee, where she recorded this stunning collection of ten songs with the Siss Boom Bang and the closest she's got to Country since the 1989 album, "Absolute Torch And Twang".
But Caveat Emptor! This is not country music in the sense of her original Sire recordings with the Reclines, but an album that borrows country styles and influences. There is pedal steel guitar, dobro, banjo, slide guitar, and mandolin to establish country credentials plus a mesmerising baritone guitar on three of the tracks. Stylistically, perhaps, closer to Emmylou Harris produced by Daniel Lanois than Patsy Cline produced by Owen Bradley.
But, ultimately, it doesn't really matter what tag the album carries. What is important is that gorgeous voice, surely one of the purest and most satisfying in popular music.
It may not be the return to the Nashville country sound that some of her fans no doubt craved but it sounds like a contemporary musical direction with which she sounds truly comfortable - another road to travel.
But, nearly twenty years on, she has returned to Nashville, Tennessee, where she recorded this stunning collection of ten songs with the Siss Boom Bang and the closest she's got to Country since the 1989 album, "Absolute Torch And Twang".
But Caveat Emptor! This is not country music in the sense of her original Sire recordings with the Reclines, but an album that borrows country styles and influences. There is pedal steel guitar, dobro, banjo, slide guitar, and mandolin to establish country credentials plus a mesmerising baritone guitar on three of the tracks. Stylistically, perhaps, closer to Emmylou Harris produced by Daniel Lanois than Patsy Cline produced by Owen Bradley.
But, ultimately, it doesn't really matter what tag the album carries. What is important is that gorgeous voice, surely one of the purest and most satisfying in popular music.
It may not be the return to the Nashville country sound that some of her fans no doubt craved but it sounds like a contemporary musical direction with which she sounds truly comfortable - another road to travel.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
During the past decade, k d lang has delved into pop standards, and melodramatic orchestrated nods to fellow Canadian songwriters. Lang's expanded musical directions broadened her commercial appeal for sure, but after her Invincible Summer recording, her previously prolific song writing seemed to run dry. I confess wondering if kathy dawn would ever return to her roots and what made her so exciting and relevant in the first place. In the opening track of her new recording, "Sing it Loud" with her new kick ass band, Siss Boom Bang, in a collaboration with fellow band mates, lang muses, "now I know the letting go was my mistake."
While touring to promote her last album, "Watershed" lang found herself gravitating toward country songs during sound check. After a chance backstage meeting in Nashville with guitarist and songwriter Joe Pisapia, she knew she had met a kindred spirit to co-write the return to the musical territory that kick started her career.
In "Habit of Mind," lang reflects, "I've lost my edge, It's left the building like Elvis, I guess." Judging by k d's spirited appearance on The Tonite Show when she performed "Sugar Buzz", she appears to be channelling Elvis during his '68 comeback with slicked up hair, black suit and red shirt, more than making up for the edginess and sassy energy missing in her recorded output the past decade.
lang and Siss Boom Bang have found a creative place to stretch out in this offering of nine new original compositions and a stelIer cover of Talking Heads "Heaven." lang was determined to write a record perfect for folk festivals and laughingly told a reporter during a recent interview, "I Swear, on Buddha's lap I wrote this record for the Canadian folk festivals." One of k d's gifts is continually tweaking her material live, and one can only look forward to her stretching out with this new material while touring to promote Sing It Loud. Word has it that lang and her band have been reworking her older material as well, giving her back catalogue a whole new life in the process. Musing to a reporter, lang quipped, "there's a lot more engine under the pedal there." It's a treat hearing our favorite torch and twanger firmly back and sitting high in the saddle again!
While touring to promote her last album, "Watershed" lang found herself gravitating toward country songs during sound check. After a chance backstage meeting in Nashville with guitarist and songwriter Joe Pisapia, she knew she had met a kindred spirit to co-write the return to the musical territory that kick started her career.
In "Habit of Mind," lang reflects, "I've lost my edge, It's left the building like Elvis, I guess." Judging by k d's spirited appearance on The Tonite Show when she performed "Sugar Buzz", she appears to be channelling Elvis during his '68 comeback with slicked up hair, black suit and red shirt, more than making up for the edginess and sassy energy missing in her recorded output the past decade.
lang and Siss Boom Bang have found a creative place to stretch out in this offering of nine new original compositions and a stelIer cover of Talking Heads "Heaven." lang was determined to write a record perfect for folk festivals and laughingly told a reporter during a recent interview, "I Swear, on Buddha's lap I wrote this record for the Canadian folk festivals." One of k d's gifts is continually tweaking her material live, and one can only look forward to her stretching out with this new material while touring to promote Sing It Loud. Word has it that lang and her band have been reworking her older material as well, giving her back catalogue a whole new life in the process. Musing to a reporter, lang quipped, "there's a lot more engine under the pedal there." It's a treat hearing our favorite torch and twanger firmly back and sitting high in the saddle again!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
KD
To say this CD is different is an understatement and not what I expected but it is not to say I was pleasantly surprised
Published 4 months ago by Ladlar
It's Dull
I love the voice of KD Lang but this album is just dull. Maybe she's past her hey day but i just get a feeling that she's gotta pop out another album on her contract or something... Read more
Published 6 months ago by R. Smith
Not one of her best
I usually like everything KD does, but this one's a disappointment. A decidedly raggy band and some lacklustre lyrics. Its lying unplayed at the back of the rack.
Published 9 months ago by LW1
Sing it Loud and sing it fabulously.
What a voice has kd. This is a terrific album with a variety of songs that all show her amazing voice and its pure qualities to its best.
Published 10 months ago by Maddyb
Great service
Great service but was disappointed with the album - after reading the reviews was really excited about getting her latest album - but have to say in my opinion this album is no... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Christine Close
K.D lang sing it loud
I loved this album it's so relaxing and send's you on a journey very easy to imagin yourself disapearing off somewhere. magic
Published 12 months ago by goldie
kd lang back on form!
i have been a kd lang fan for many years and apart from a couple of albums, loved most of them.
this album for me compares greatly with her old classic, shadowland. Read more
this album for me compares greatly with her old classic, shadowland. Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. chadwick
Sing it kd...
Can't say I was ever a big fan of ms.lang. Admired it of course, what she was doing and the quality of her voice but now, years later I see her in her new "guise" and I think its... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. Eugene Brosnan
Sing It Beautiful
K.D. Lang is back after a quiet spell out of the limelight. This album ranks with her best work and her voice is so clear and flowing. Read more
Published 12 months ago by ken graham
Very Disapointing
I think K.D.Lang has got a tremendous voice, I saw a video of her singing Halelujah at the Vancouver olympics and I thought I must have her latest CD. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Jonathan
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
