The material on Drag runs the gamut from the '40s pop tune "Smoke Dreams" to Jane Siberry's "H'Aint It Funny" to the theme from the Ubercamp cult movie Valley of the Dolls. What brings it all together, beyond the loose cigarette 'n' smoke theme, are the gorgeous arrangements and Lang's flawless renderings.

Where Lang used to indulge in showy histrionics, the singer has finally learned to keep her pipes in check. She's happy now just to wrap herself around every syllable with clockwork timing. The chorus of "Puff ... puff ... puff ... your cares away" in "Smoke Rings" is exhaled with a languor that only can be described as post-coital, and Steve Miller's "The Joker" is transmogrified from cheesy nugget to modern cabaret standard – the song becomes a purring Cadillac, and Lang is driving with two fingers casually resting on the wheel. Considering that classic interpreters tend only to get better – think of 70-year-old Rosemary Clooney – one can only look forward to the next 40 years of k.d. Lang's career. (RS 763)

ELISABETH VINCENTELLI