Hymns of the 49th Parallel | 
| Artist: K.D. Lang
Label: Nonesuch
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy Used: $4.99
as of 7/29/2010 18:56 PDT details
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Seller: Glids Music and Books
Rating:  152 reviews
Sales Rank: 607
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 075597984729
EAN: 0075597984729
ASIN: B000267J10
Release Date: July 27, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | After the Gold Rush (Young) | | • | Simple (lang/Piltch) | | • | Helpless (Young) | | • | A Case of You (Mitchell) | | • | The Valley (Siberry) | | • | Hallelujah (Cohen) | | • | One Day I Walk (Cockburn) | | • | Fallen (Sexsmith) | | • | Jericho (Mitchell) | | • | Bird on a Wire (Cohen) | | • | Love Is Everything (Siberry) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Was it homesickness that compelled longtime Los Angeles resident k.d. lang to fashion her one-woman campaign for north-of-the-border nationalism, or just plain good sense? All Canadian content has long been a mainstay of the Canadian Broadcasting System, but few have selected their material with such a fine hand and a high aesthetic. The expatriate singer has taken great pains to create a sophisticated homage to her Canadian roots, elegantly reinterpreting 11 songs penned by some of her more illustrious countrymen (and women) such as Jane Siberry, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Leonard Cohen. The idiosyncratic chanteuse turns Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" into an aching monochromatic lament, exploring new tributaries of pain that didn't exist in the original, while recasting Neil Young's "Helpless" into a haunting anthem of memory and comfort, all the while sounding anything but helpless. A gorgeous love letter to her brethren, complete with an intelligent and understated orchestration. --Jaan Uhelszki
Album Description
Hymns of the 49th Parallel fulfills k.d. lang's longstanding desire to create a Canadian songbook. On the album, her first for Nonesuch Records, she pays homage to fellow Canadian artists including Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Jane Siberry, Ron Sexsmith, and Bruce Cockburn.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 152
 An excellent work by Lang September 15, 2004
R. D. Waters (Newton, NC United States)
43 out of 44 found this review helpful
Over the years I have found a certain special connection with particular k. d. Lang recordings. "Ingénue" and "Drag" in particular come to mind. They are works made up of carefully selected songs that make up a greater whole. For me "Hymns of the 49th Parallel" falls into the same category. It is a stunning work from beginning to end.
Jane Siberry's "The Valley" is probably my personal favorite. While Siberry's own recording is amazing, Lang's big-boned-gal voice gives "The Valley" an additional anthem-like boost. The chorus haunts me daily as I walk through the office halls or get into my car. It is moving and powerful.
Lang's take on Joni Mitchell's two classics, "A Case of You" and "Jericho", are also exceptional. The choice of "A Case of You" in particular was appropriate. Mitchell's song about her birthplace of Canada fits beautifully into Lang's collection of songs by Canadian artists. "Jericho", my personal favorite from "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter", is another standout. Lang handles Mitchell's bittersweet lyrics carefully and confidently. The song positively soars and I can promise the stereo volume always gets turned up in our house when this track starts.
When I first saw Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" listed on the CD jacket, I thought, "Oh, no, not another cover of that song!" Who can count the number of cover versions of this classic Cohen song? Regardless, Lang makes her own memorable contribution. Another outstanding cover is her version of Cohen's "Hallelujah".
There is no song on this collection that I do not like in one way or another. It is the recording as a whole that makes this CD worth owning. Much thought on song selection and excellent musicianship went into "Hymns of the 49th Parallel". Lang has never sounded better.
Subtle, Complex, Bracing... December 22, 2004
Pen Name (Ireland)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
The cover-image of this CD is a photograph of a snowy Winter scene. It's an appropriate image, for the music on this CD is as subtle and complex as a snowflake, and just as bracing when it hits the right spot.
I'm listening to the CD as I'm typing this review, and am amazed how, once again, it is a different track to that of previous listens that leaves me breathless this time. This album is the dictionary definition of a 'grower', and every listen offers something newly arresting and alluring. It keeps calling you back, and, despite initial ambivalence, you keep being glad you go back. I wasn't at all sure about this CD when I first got it, but I'll happily end 2004 declaring it my album of the year.
Disregard the comments on here that complain about some of the song choices being obvious - there is nothing obvious about this album. The choice of songs is impeccable, with each song being invested with an emotional quality that evokes all that was good about the original recording, yet investing it with something more. I'm not sure how to express what that "more" is - but it's a combination of emotion, realness, and authenticity, so striking that it keeps pulling you up short. This album is in an entirely different league to the (frequently justifiably) much maligned 'covers album'. On the back of kd lang's versions of these songs I have revisited my old Leonard Cohen, Ron Sexsmith, and Joni Mitchell albums, and bought new Jane Siberry and Neil Young CDs - and it's remarkable that I prefer the versions here. That *is* a compliment. This woman isn't covering these songs, she's (re)interpreting them. Volume II must, surely, be forthcoming?
This album asks for your time, and it deserves your time. It doesn't reveal its emotion readily, or give up its heart easily, but when it does - and it will - you'll be glad you trusted it.
"So take a lesson from the strangeness you feel...", indeed.
ethereal and longing February 7, 2005
kd fan (Los Angeles, CA)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
The beauty of this album is it's sparseness. I can not convey enough how risky and brilliant this is. From obscure tracks like Fallen to the more familiar (Case of You, Hallelujah) she studies the song and plants her thumb firmly on the core. And not in a "studied" way, but in a literate, passionate, loving way. To say she takes Case of You to astral heights is not granting it full due. I have never heard a Joni Mitchell cover taken so gently in one's hands, yet experienced so fully. Her voice was made for songs such as these.
And I can not serve Love is Everything properly, you simply must hear it's melancholic words and her treatment to know what that heartbreak feels like.
This album touches me in ways, subtle, longing, and sweet that few albums have. And k.d. deserves much credit for challenging herself and her audience with such art.
kd's resonant voice mirrors perfection July 27, 2004
janina (usa)
31 out of 34 found this review helpful
i have been waiting for this album with mixed thoughts to see if this was another blah copy cat of some pretty good songs but what i very pleasantly found with listening to this refreshing album was that not only does kd create her own gentle and arguably very perfectly suited voice to these tunes but changes them and makes them her own brilliantly. the acoustic folk music transfixes in the mellow and hymnotic verse of the songs. it's a must have, terrific piece of majestic poetry that highlights her great gift of voice.
The Voice that Has Travelled Far... July 29, 2004
Blue Sky (Alberta, Canada)
35 out of 40 found this review helpful
After listening to Ms Lang's tender, graceful and ever respectful treatment of each song in her new album, it was hard not to get annoyed hearing Ms Sarah Brightman, along with other artists, trying to turn famous tunes into offensive, thoughtless and commercially driven hits (have you listened to Ms Brightman's version of What a Wonderful World! ? Terrible stuff). Ms lang does not sing as a lesbian, a vegeterian or a Canadian for that mattter (though oh Canada, you are like holy wine. You are so bitter and sweet, I can have the case of you. And I can still be on my feet ). Rather, Ms lang sings with her true voice of humanity- full of nuances, grace and humility. Try to listen her early work and compare her singing to this album- and you can see how much this great Canadian singer has grown! All of the songs are great. Some, like Hallelujah, Simple, Fallen, the Valley, Helpless and Love is Everything, catch on instantly. Others, like After the Gold Rush and particularly the Case of You, grow on to you after a few listening. All and all- her singing lingers long after you have turned your CD player off. Her love for those songs and for Canada is inspiring. Indeed, one cannot call a place home without one's deep love for the country; one can also not experience true love with someone without finding a home in them. oh, Canada. oh, Ms lang. What a soulful country! What a country of soul!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 152
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