Music Review- k.d. lang. I wanna be her. Please?

Due to the incredible massiveness that was Indigo Girls, I realized that I can't do that with k.d. lang. Just too much, and about half of it is country or something that is very, very close to country. I really don't like country, so I'm going to be brave, and listen to the country. However, I'm not going to be all in depth, album by album like Indigo Girls. We're going to go by genres here, and if I feel I need to break it down into specific songs, I will.

Hmm, not bad for country.

Country
I actually sang a little to "Busy Being Blue" (A Truly Western Experience, 1984) and yes, I'm ashamed of myself. I'm even more ashamed that I found myself staring at the wall, entirely enthralled by "Hooked on Junk" (same album). Actually, I'm not ashamed. The song is enchanting in the absolute sense of the word. I also really enjoyed "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" (Shadowland, 1988) for the same reason. Nothing really caught my attention on Angel with a Lariat, 1987, or Absolute Torch and Twang, 1989, but this is 80's country. Two wrongs do not make a right, acoustically.

Not Country
Ingenue, 1992. This is when she massively changed genres and developed her own cult following. This is what people think when they think k.d. Lang. I happen to greatly love the album, and most of the songs on it. I know it's totally cliche but honestly, I wish I had listened to this when I was starting to come out to myself. Her poetry perfectly captures the conflicted feelings I felt, and the way I felt when I did ultimately come out. My absolute faves-
"Save Me" Such a chill and groovy way to begin. It flows into your mind like cool honey and like nearly every song, I can completely understand these lyrics.
"The Mind of Love" The song speaks to me, both emotionally and literally- turns out k.d. lang and I have the same first name.
"Season of Hollow Soul" My mom plays this all the time, it's her favesies.
"Outside Myself" Because it serves to clarify how I always felt, and don't the best songs do that?
"Constant Craving" I always sing to this one and fervently wish I had a voice like hers. It is also the song that makes it to the airways the most often.

Damn, she's past forty and still smoking.

Okay, now for all albums that aren't Ingenue. But I don't wanna. I want to just keep listening to these songs over and over. I've already gone through them all three times. So I'll try to move on.

"Hush Sweet Lover" is the only song I don't hate on the Even Cowgirls Get the Blues soundtrack, 1993 (she did all the music, so I thought I would give it a try.) I had much more success with All You Can Eat, 1995 (yes, I snickered when I typed the title). I listened to the whole album on repeat for a while, before deciding that "Maybe" and "Infinite and Unforeseen" were my favorite tracks. The latter is so nice and dreamy, I think I want to always go to sleep to it. "Extraordinary Thing" and "Curiosity" were the shining stars of Invincible Summer, 2000. "Extraordinary Thing" is basically "You have no idea how incredibly wonderful you are" in song form, and much prettier. "Curiosity" has such a cool rhythm that I couldn't leave it off the list. I felt like Hymns of the 49th Parallel, 2004, was almost too downtempo for me, with a lot of soothing vocals and piano. I loved her version of "Hallelujah", mostly because I always love that song. The only song I liked on Watershed, 2008, was "Thread". Sing It Loud, 2011, was a slightly uncomfortable mix of country and contemporary, but I did find "I Confess" to be nice.

So that's it. My very very quick review of k.d. lang. Between her and the Indigo Girls, I'm twangy-guitared out. It's time for some nice, soothing, metal.  I liked the music, for the most part, but when you listen to several albums straight, it can wear on you. Her voice is absolutely amazing, though, and I suspect I'm going to like it in small doses, but three days straight of any music will wear on you. All You Can Eat and Ingenue were definitely my favorite albums, and the only ones I'm keeping around, aside from a few songs from the other albums.