Description

Nonesuch releases k.d. langs Ingénue (25th Anniversary Edition) to celebrate the double platinum-selling, Grammy Awardwinning albums silver anniversary. This new two-disc set includes remastered versions of the albums original ten tracks, including its huge hit Constant Craving, and the second disc features eight previously unreleased performances from langs 1993 MTV Unplugged episode, recorded in New York Citys famed Ed Sullivan Theater.

Ingénue was k.d. langs fifth album, following a quartet of records that pushed the boundaries of country music. Released in 1992, the album was the first of entirely new material. lang wrote most of the songs with her longtime collaborator Ben Mink; Greg Penny co-wrote So It Shall Be, and all three produced the album. The NME named it one of the years best albums and said, You will fall in love with Ingénue. In fact, you will want to have its children.

As James Reed writes in the 25th Anniversary Edition liner note, Ingénue is still such a mysterious body of work Youd be hard-pressed to pinpoint when the album was released or even made and where. It slinks out of the speakers with luminous melodies in search of a soundtrack, its choruses as vast and sweeping as the Canadian prairies where lang grew up in Consort, Alberta. A strange brew of torch and twang, of pop gloss and jazz sophistication and shot through with Eastern European flourishes lang was fond of calling it post-nuclear cabaret back then. Throughout Ingénue, a succinct song cycle and ode to an unrequited relationship, we witness an artist navigating love in its many splendors. It should have come with a warning sticker on its cover: Love is not always pretty. Proceed with caution and a Kleenex. lang was unflinching in presenting desire as both toxic and intoxicating, a human condition that subsumes all of us at some point.

On tour, in addition to performing songs from Ingénue, lang marks the 150th anniversary of Canada as an independent nation by singing music from her 2004 Nonesuch album, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, which features lang singing the songs that define her country, by fellow Canadians including Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Jane Siberry, Ron Sexsmith, and Bruce Cockburn. [lang is a Canada 150 Ambassador.]

Sing it Loud was langs most recent solo studio album, released by Nonesuch in 2011. In 2010, the label released the four-time Grammy winner and eight-time Juno winners first career retrospective, Recollection, which features twenty-two of langs most beloved recordings including an all-new interpretation of the Leonard Cohen classic Hallelujah. Previously, Nonesuch released langs Watershed (2008), which debuted in Billboards top ten upon its release.

Called The greatest female singer in the whole world by fellow Canadian Michael Bublé, lang has had a distinguished career. In addition to a fruitful collaboration with Tony Bennett, she has performed alongside luminaries including Roy Orbison, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, and Loretta Lynn. She sang at the closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. lang has contributed music to the soundtracks of several films, including Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and Happy Feet. She has also appeared in a number of films, including Salmonberries, The Black Dahlia, and Eye of the Beholder. In 1996, lang received Canadas highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada.