All You Can Eat

Personnel: K.D. Lang (vocals, banjo, ukelin, harp, keyboards, loops); Ben Mink (guitar, E-bow, ukulele, violin, viola, urhu, strings, keyboards, synthesizer, loops); John Friesen (cello); Ingrid, Isabel (strings); Teddy Borowiecki (piano, organ, pipe organ, Fender Rhodes electric piano, keyboards, synthesizer); David Piltch (bass); Randall Stoll (drums); Graham Boyle (percussion).
Recorded at Placebo Sound, Vancouver, Canada.
After the success of INGENUE, K.D. Lang and long-time music collaborator Ben Mink picked up and moved shop from glamorous L.A., returning to their native Canada to formulate the smoothest and most organic album of Lang's pop era. The cunningly titled ALL YOU CAN EAT shows Lang's emerging openness ("Sexuality"), but reflects a wariness of being a pop commodity. There is also the sensation that this is a self-realized album--not the gear-up for another Grammy, not a song-cycle directed to the hip confines of Los Angeles, but something of her own making.
ALL YOU CAN EAT jaunts through "the warm scent of lust" where "the world of love begins" to show Lang's musical diversity through the different stages of romance. The delicate string arrangement behind "Infinite And Unforeseen" offers Lang's soaring vocals the chance to move in its ambience, and "I Want It All" is all dance-floor stride through soulful and modern R&B textures, with a bigger beat than much of her previous material.
ALL YOU CAN EAT again proves Lang's grip on what makes contemporary pop work. The slickness behind the dance grooves combines assurance with a willingness to experiment, while her voice carries the material to its fullness. ALL YOU CAN EAT might not make her the "queen of popularity" ("If I Were You"), but it certainly covers many of the bases.