After many incarnations and adventurous forays into progressive musical territories, on INGENUE K.D. Lang finally found an artistic persona she was comfortable with: The Chanteuse. Lang is a vocalist of an unparalleled depth in contemporary music. Adept at phrasing and actual vocalizing, Lang’s palette ranges from the subtle to the bold–always on key, on the edge, and in control. INGENUE displays a subdued K.D. Lang; a powerhouse singer who reins in potential histrionics and sings in a full, dynamic voice. Her job here is to sing, and tell the stories she needs to tell. INGENUE coincided with lang making her personal life a public issue, and the songs on the album all reveal an inner turmoil. On “The Mind of Love,” Kathryn Dawn Lang sings “Talking to myself, causing great concern for my health, where is your head Kathryn, where is your head?” Most songs deal with love, whether it has been won (“Still Thrives This Love”), lost (“Season of Hollow Soul”), in full lust (“Wash Me Clean”), or unspoken (the Joni Mitchell-ish “Outside Myself”). The album isn’t all heavy-handed examinations, though; there’s the peppy nouveau-cabaret “Miss Chatelaine,” and the award-winning track that sums it all up, “Constant Craving.” An album to savor, INGENUE presents a mature picture of a woman’s world of longing and desire, and Lang expresses it in a clear, powerful, well-defined and well-controlled voice.

1. Save Me
2. Mind of Love
3. Miss Chatelaine
4. Wash Me Clean
5. So It Shall Be
6. Still Thrives This Love
7. Season of Hollow Soul
8. Outside Myself
9. Tears of Love’s Recall
10. Constant Craving