k.d. lang – Hymns of the 49th Parallel

Hymns of the 49th Parallel is k.d. lang's twelfth album (if you count the collaboration with Tony Bennett) and her biggest hit since Ingénue a dozen years earlier. It reached number two in Canada, 56 in the US, and 91 in the UK, while going platinum in Canada and double platinum in Australia, where it peaked at number three. The album ranked 59th in Bob Mersereau's The Top 100 Canadian Albums book in 2007 and 12th in the Mar*Star's greatest Canadian album poll in 2011.

Hymns of the 49th Parallel is a collection of songs by lang's favourite Canadian songwriters, including two each from Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, and Neil Young, and one each from Bruce Cockburn and Ron Sexsmith, as well as one of her own. Five of the eleven original songs are included among the 150 songs in this list.

While it was warmly welcomed in Canada (lang was nominated for Artist of the Year at the 2005 Juno awards), Hymns of the 49th Parallel received more mixed reviews internationally:

• AllMusic gave it 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it "not so much a flag-waving celebration of Canada as an appreciation of the often spare and evocative style of its best-known lyricists"
• Q gave it only 2 stars, calling it "bereft of the joy and pain that made her name"
• Rolling Stone Album Guide gave it 4 stars out of 5, saying it "answers the 'American songbook' concept" taking personal songs and "making [them] both universal and utterly her own"

lang released "Helpless" and "Simple" as singles from the album, but neither of them charted.

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Track Listing

1. "After the Gold Rush" (Neil Young) – 4:00

2. "Simple" (k.d. lang, David Piltch) – 3:01

3. "Helpless" (Neil Young) – 4:13

4. "A Case of You" (Joni Mitchell) – 5:10

5. "The Valley" (Jane Siberry) – 5:29

6. "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen) – 4:57

7. "One Day I Will Walk" (Bruce Cockburn) – 3:23

8. "Fallen" (Ron Sexsmith) – 2:55

9. "Jericho" (Joni Mitchell) – 3:44

10. "Bird on a Wire" (Leonard Cohen) – 4:27

11. "Love is Everything" (Jane Siberry) – 5:39

Personnel

• k.d. lang – Ingénue (album)
• k.d. lang – A Truly Western Experience (album)
• k.d. lang – Constant Craving (song)
• k.d. lang – Miss Chatelaine (song)