Star rating: ****
She's a bit of a tease, old kd. And we're not talking about letting drop that only one woman gets to call her Kathy, so that some hopeful inevitably calls out her name. The encores hinted at a bit more than they delivered, too, and really only served to extend the set closer to 30 quids-worth than the official 70 minutes.

That said, we critics aren't shelling out the dosh, and though the songs from the new album Lang released at the beginning of the week, Watershed, didn't have instant knock-out appeal, there's no denying the quality of the voice and the beautifully orchestrated accompaniments of her latest band.

Lang has the knack of getting musicians to give her both lushness and conciseness. It's clearly what she likes to sing with and, my God, the woman can sing. Her control is as fabulous as ever, with a dynamic range that doesn't quite go from a whisper to a scream because she doesn't need to scream or showboat. She does big stuff, as on her reading of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and daft stuff, too, inviting us to puff our worries away like some Disney adult cartoon soundtrack.

The songs by her fellow Canadians - Neil Young and Jane Siberry, as well as Cohen - confirm her interpretative talent, something she also applies to her own older material such as the gliding, gorgeous Wash Me Clean and the melody stretched like a new skin over the chords of Constant Craving.

All in all, not quite killer kd but, for a first gig on a world tour, still hitting the ground running.