Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Watershed, K.D. Lang?s second Nonesuch album, indeed represents a significant juncture in her 25-year career as a recording artist-a collection of eleven new original songs produced, for the first time, by Lang herself. As with any challenge she?s met in her unparalleled career, lang is a natural behind the boards in the studio. Watershed has an intimate feel and a sophisticated sound that highlights the warmth in Lang?s voice, the maturity of her songwriting and the simple beauty of her arrangements. The Grammy Award-winning artist draws on her wealth of experience with an impressively wide range of genres to fashion a revealing portrait of the artist as she is right now. As Lang explains, "Watershed is like a culmination of everything I?ve done ? there?s a little bit of jazz, a little country, a little of the Ingenue sound, a little Brazilian touch. It really feels like the way I hear music, this mash-up of genres, and I think it reflects all the styles that have preceded this in my catalogue." K.D. Lang Photos  |  |  | More from K.D. Lang 
Watershed Deluxe Limited Edition | 
Hymns of the 49th Parallel | 
Ingenue | 
Shadowland | 
Live by Request (2001) | 
Absolute Torch and Twang | 
Drag | 
All You Can Eat | 
Reintarnation [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] | 
Live by Request [LIVE] | 
Invincible Summer | 
A Truly Western Experience [EXTRA TRACKS] |
Amazon.co.uk
Watershed is the first major project from celebrated Canadian chanteuse k.d. lang since 2004's Hymns of the 49th Parallel. Where Hymns explored the music of fellow Canadians such as Ron Sexsmith, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, Watershed represents the first set of original songs from lang in around eight years. Self-produced and arranged by musicians she has worked with a lot in the past, the most striking aspect of the album is its intimate, homely feel. Adding to the cozy ambience is the fact that Watershed brings most of lang's musical passions and influences--jazz, country, folk, bossa nova--under one roof, lending the project a dreamy, mellifluous coherence. But if the musical landscape is mellow and easy to traverse, Lang's lyrics can be less comfortable. Using her laid-back, often ethereal arrangements as sugar-candied coating for thornier topics, the singer serenades with stories of broken love, occasionally harsh self-analysis and the obligatory forays into existential angst. These contrastive elements only serve to make the album stronger, adding emotional weight to the airless arrangements of "Once in a While," and the delicate "Close Your Eyes," and conjuring up images of beauty on the string-laden "I Dream of Spring," and the wonderfully lazy "Sunday". Intelligent, mature and sophisticated, Watershed is the kind of perfect pop album it's difficult not to fall in love with immediately and forever. --Paul Sullivan
| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
  still great! August 31, 2008
fans of kd lang know by now what they are getting when she puts out a new cd. This is no exception: great songs, great production, sweet harmonies, and that awesome voice.
Buy this!!
 k.d. Lang August 29, 2008
She has a wonderful voice but I do not like her songs. They seem outdated to me.
KD Lang's illumination shines August 4, 2008
I have been a long time follower and collector of KD's music,
Watershed is the album I find reaching for more than most
cds in my collection. I remember seeing KD sing live in San Diego
at an old ornate acoustical opera house. The range and quality of this soothing voice live
was even more smooth, sharp and resonate then on the album recordings.
Watershed's content is mature, one of zenness, of a higher purpose, but still youthful with feminine
and haunting layerings of magnetic sounds.There is a great use of instruments like the violin throughout.
For the individuals who gave this masterpiece five stars, they get this cattle dog artist.
Lastly, I was in San Francisco visiting on asignment as a photographer and the taxi
driver who picked me up said KD was remarkable and kind and down to earth because
he drove KD around the previous day. This seeps through in watershed. I sure wish that our paths would cross some other day. Maybe I'll just have to see KD again in concert!
 Another wonderful offering July 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not much that this woman does is mediocre. This is another great album and she makes you think she's singing all about you.
 Pouring it all out July 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For her first album of originals since 2000's Invincible Summer, kd lang hearkens back to all the music she's made in the last 25 years. There are touches of her Absolute Torch and Twang country brilliance, the snazzy chanteuse who blossomed on Ingenue and the lush, smokey voice that has carried across all her work from the beginning. It also marks her transition to a mature singer/songwriter.
"Watershed" may be comprised mostly of love songs, but they are subtle takes on the gift. "Coming Home" (the best song here) is exquisitely written; can you name any songwriters of late who can work a word like 'minutiae' into their lyrics? Didn't think so. The heavy handed Moon/June type of love songs are 100% absent from "Watershed," replaced by such delights as "Flame of The Uninspired" or "I Dream Of Spring." The songs are often underscored with gorgeous string charts. It's Lang's first attempt at self-production, and she acquits herself nicely.
Unfortunately, what keeps this album from a more inspiring rating is the fact that it never perks up past low-to-mid tempo. The biggest kicks come from the clever "Upstream," and the country growler that closes the CD, "Jealous Dog." "Dog" is the only song that breaks from the immaculate middle of the road sound. By just setting itself around Lang and her piano/banjo playing, it breaks the mold enough to be a standout. It's an issue that also haunted her prior Nonesuch CD, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, which bogged down under too many low-key songs.
While "Watershed" doesn't fail in its mission to soothe and relax, kd lang has shown multiple times that she is capable of delivering far more. This album is a pleasant, immaculately crafted work, but in the end, it's just immaculate craft. Lang has, in the past, produced art...and "Watershed" falls short of that mark.
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