k.d. lang Reflects On 25 Years Of 'Ingénue'

Jeri Heiden/Courtesy of the artist

July 13, 201711:22 AM ET
by ROBIN HILTON

Back in 1992, singer k.d. lang released a record unlike any other. Ingénue slithered against the popular music grain with songs that drew slow, deep breaths and sighed seductively. It had an alluringly divergent sound that landed somewhere in a blurry nexus of pop, country and global folk, with accordions, clarinets and Eastern European flourishes. And lang's monumental voice, both powerful and restrained, was simply unforgettable as she sang languorous songs of love and desire.

Ingénue became a monstrous, multi-platinum hit for lang, but it was also a milestone in the '90s LGBT rights movement. Against her label's wishes, lang came out in a cover story for The Advocate three months after the album was released. Her decision helped spark a shift in the national conversation about what it meant to be gay and made Ingénue one of the first in a series of important cultural moments that pushed LGBT issues into the mainstream conversation. (Others from that period included the film Philadelphia and the Broadway play Angels In America and, later in the same decade, the television sitcom Will And Grace).

read more at: http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/07/13/536522399/k-d-lang-reflects-on-25-years-of-ing-nue?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20170713&utm_campaign=youmusthearthis&utm_term=music