K D Lang All You Can Eat CD

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.
Personnel: k.d. lang (vocals, banjo, harp, harmonica, keyboards); Ben Mink (guitar, ukulele, violin, viola, keyboards); John Friesen (cello); Teddy Borowiecki (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizer); David Piltch (bass guitar); Randall Stoll (drums); Graham Boyle (percussion).
Recording information: Placebo Sound, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
k.d. lang followed through on the promise of her adult contemporary changeover Ingénue with All You Can Eat. A more experimental and realized record than its predecessor, there are more daring production touches on All You Can Eat -- it's clear that she has been listening to contemporary pop, not just torch songs. It isn't immediately accessible -- the production is low-key, the melodies are gentle and subtle (although her cutesy, tongue-in-cheek song titles suggest otherwise), and lang gives a nuanced, sophisticated performance. Though it lacks a standout song like the aching "Constant Craving," All You Can Eat has a more consistent set of songs and, given time, is a more rewarding listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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.Rolling Stone (11/16/95, p.112) - 3 Stars - Good - "...The rhythms and sonic textures draw from the vintage soul of Al Green, while the stark arrangements and lush melodies embrace the primal sophistication of trend-bucking college- radio faves like Bjork and Harvey without evoking either..."
Spin (11/95, p.127) - 7 - Flawed Yet Worthy - "...as mannered a groove as she's ever offered....The synthetic funk of ALL YOU CAN EAT sounds all-natural, more soulful than new age, more alterna than adult. These songs haven't an ounce of singer-songwriter fat..."
Entertainment Weekly (12/29/95-1/5/96, p.132) - Ranked #9 on EW's Top 10 Albums Of 1995.
Entertainment Weekly (10/13/95, pp.74-76) - "...Ten meditations on unrequited desire, courtship, rejection and sex, ALL YOU CAN EAT is both the most brazen and conventional album she's ever made, and one of her best..." - Rating: A
Q (2/96, p.64) - Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995 - "...sensibly avoided dwelling on celebrity misery in favour of more tactile musings on the sucker-punch power of desire..."
Musician (1/96, p.95) - "...there's much to love about these songs...Lang offers charms enough to seduce even the casual fan..."
NME (Magazine) (9/30/95, p.54) - 7 (out of 10) - "...a full-on, snog me now, mellow-man meltdown of orchestral quavering and blissed-out pondering on the nature of love, sex and all the paranoia in between....KD Lang is one of those proper songwriters/lungsmiths who could exist in any of rock's lost decades..."