The first album of new songs in five years from the genre-busting three-time Grammy-winning k.d. lang is a pop and rock disk titled Invincible Summer. One of the most distinctive artists in popular music, lang has broken down barriers in music and society. After the double-platinum smash Ingenue and 1995's gold All You Can Eat, this summer have a fling with k.d. lang.


watch the video for "Summerfling" (Real Media)

Track by Track with k.d. lang

"The Consequences Of Falling" - "This is the only song on the album that I didn't write. When I first heard it I was working with Rick Nowels on music for a movie called Anywhere But Here and he played it for me. As soon as I heard it, I knew immediately that I wanted to record it. It suited me, suited my voice and I said, 'I want that song.' As far as the subject matter goes, I think it's the only track that doesn't exactly fit the concept of this record. But I couldn't resist."

"Summerfling" - "This is really the core of the record thematically. It gets to the heart of what I was trying to express. If I had to explain it, I'd say it's about how being in love makes you feel like it's summer all the time. This was the second song I wrote for the album and, although I worked out some of the imagery and the vocabulary in my mind beforehand, everything really came together with this song."

"Suddenly" - "This was the first song I wrote for the record. It's about that feeling you get meeting someone for the first time and thinking you've known them before, in some other time or place. It's about using the reincarnation excuse to want to be with somebody…which I used to do all the time."

"It's Happening With You" - "This song was written on the beach when I was out one day with my dog. I have a little suitcase I carry around with me that has paper, some pens, a tape recorder, and I'd gone down there with the intention to work. It's a great atmosphere for inspiration, especially when you're trying to get in a summer mood. The song itself is about how your perspective on everything changes absolutely when you're in love."

"Extraordinary Thing" - "This is basically on the same subject. Come to think of it, the whole album, on one level, deals with how love makes everything different. It ties in with the summer theme of the songs, about how love feels like summer. I mean, love can also feel like winter, or spring or fall. But for me, the atmosphere of these songs, the melodies and the imagery, are definitely geared more toward that particular time of the year as a way of expressing an emotional state of being."

"Love's Great Ocean" - "This is the one song I wrote with my old partner, Ben Mink. I've always been a big Roy Orbison fan, so it has a bit of an Orbison feel to it, and, as far as what it's about, I'm using the ocean as a metaphor for the immensity of love."

"Simple" - "This song, for me, has the deepest personal significance of anything on the record. I think of it as a mantra, a prayer or a hymn. It's about how love is really a simple thing, not nearly as complex or complicated as humans make it. Every act of love is connected. Loving God, your dog, your lover. It's all the same."

"What Better Said" - "This is about that moment we've all experienced when you're waiting for that person to say that they love you, and you wait and wait and start hinting at them to say it, trying to open up the moment for it to happen. And maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. It's out of your hands."

"When We Collide" - "This is about that overpowering moment when you encounter someone you're secretly in love with, someone you're coveting. You see that person, and what ensues is described in the song. It's like a whole universe that you keep accessing throughout the days that follow because you want to recreate it. You want to live there, to be in that moment forever."

"Curiosity" - "This a strange little song. I started out with the idea that curiosity is a woman, but it turned out to be more about being enamored with someone, being infatuated and obsessed. The funny thing is, I wrote it with my dog in mind. My dog's name is Saylor and we go swimming together a lot in the ocean. We're very fond of each other."

"Only Love" - "While I was writing this album a couple of my friends went through very severe breakups. I wrote this for them. It's about how love is really the only thing that can both kill you and bring you back to life."

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