Recording information: Art Kitchen; Bradley's Barn, Mt. Julien, TN; Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Glenwood Place Studios, Burbank, CA; Mushroom Studios, Vancouver, BC; Placebo Sound, Vancouver, BC; Serious Sound, New York, NY; Sony Studios, New York, NY; Sunset Sound Studio, Hollywood, CA; The Hut; The Jungle Room; Vancouver Studios, Vancouver, BC.

Photographer: Raymond Meeks.

Since 2006's Reintarnation chronicled k.d. lang's alt-country beginnings, there was a need for a compilation that focused on her smoky prime, the recordings from Ingénue on, the recordings that turned her into a crossover star. Recollection, available as either a double-disc or a deluxe set that expands that pair with a disc of live recordings and a DVD of music videos, does just that, painting a portrait of lang the modern-day torch singer. In doing so, it repeats a little of Reintarnation, but even those tunes don't quite possess the wild, almost campy retro-swing of lang's early years. Nothing about Recollection is camp: this is all smooth and assured, accentuating lang's nuance if not her range, and if this winds up being a little too streamlined, at least it offers a better overall introduction to lang's music than her previous compilation. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine