Sarah McLachlan Invites Listeners To Shine On As She Churns Out An Unremarkable Album!

The Good: Good lyrics, Good vocals, Generally decent sound
The Bad: Overproduced, Short, No hook, Nothing surprising.
The Basics: Shine On delivers Sarah McLachlan fans new music . . . without reaching any of her prior greatness.


The aspect of anticipation that works like a double-edged sword is that the eagerness one has for an anticipated project leads to heightened expectations. The more we crave something, the more we want it to be exceptional, superlative . . . the best we’ve ever heard from the artist, in the case of musical works. That type of anticipation usually leads to disappointment and as a fan of Sarah McLachlan’s works, that is where I am after listening to her latest album, Shine On. Even if I had not spent the last few weeks listening to the two-disc version of Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan (reviewed here!) and falling back in love with her body of work, I suspect that I would have found Shine On unfortunately dull.

To be clear, Shine On is not a bad or terrible album; it is an average album. Shine On continues in the direction that Laws Of Illusion (reviewed here!) was headed in, with artist Sarah McLachlan providing a more produced-sounding album. Shine On shows an evolution from McLachlan’s prior works . . . but not in a particularly compelling or enjoyable direction. Instead, Shine On lacks a spark, a zest or originality that makes it at all distinctive. The result is an album that is unfortunately forgettable and one where listeners are hard-pressed to choose superlative songs because the album blends together after multiple listens without any tracks that stop the listener and compel them to react in any meaningful way.

At a little more than forty-one minutes of music, Shine On is short, but it is very much the work of Sarah McLachlan. Ten of the eleven songs were at least co-written by McLachlan (collaborator Luke Doucet wrote the album’s final track, “The Sound That Love Makes”) and Sarah McLachlan provides all of the album’s primary vocals. Sarah McLachlan plays at least one instrument on each song as well. Interestingly, the liner notes to Shine On do not credit the album with a producer; each song has a producer and that seems to be the one creative credit McLachlan does not receive on Shine On.

Vocally, Shine On sounds only somewhat like a Sarah McLachlan album. McLachlan usually has forthright vocals that highlight her natural singing voice. Shine On seldom does that. To be clear, McLachlan sings clearly and articulately on Shine On, so all of her lines may easily be heard and understood. However, the instrumental accompaniment occasionally overwhelms McLachlan’s voice, production elements enhance her vocals and she seldom stretches her range on Shine On. Instead, Shine On feels like Sarah McLachlan is holding back, like she is giving just enough to be recognizable, without taxing herself.

As far as the instrumental accompaniment goes, Shine On is very much a nondescript pop-rock album. McLachlan alternates between faster and slower tracks, which makes for a listenable album, though it does not allow any one track to break out. In a similar fashion, the album itself does not “pop” as the songs listlessly move from one style to another. The album does manage to blend well between guitar and piano-driven tracks, though there is not a single distinctive tune that sticks with the listener after the first few listens.

Lyrically, Shine On is very much a typical Sarah McLachlan album. That means that, despite any failings, the album is well-written. Diverging from just love songs or socially-conscious songs, Shine On has McLachlan venturing into some new thematic directions. Take, for example, “Monsters.” “Monsters” has Sarah McLachlan singing about aging and disillusionment in a manner she has not before. With lines like “When we were young / There were always creatures lurking under the bed / A thousand year old dragon lived deep in the lake / And he said don’t be afraid / So you dove in . . . And don’t you know that there’s a wolf stalking in sheep’s / Clothing tells me he’s the real thing / Think what your life would be missing / if you didn’t have him to sing / To sing about” (“Monsters”), McLachlan transitions well from metaphor to reality to build her themes.

Shine On is not a complete thematic departure for Sarah McLachlan. Love and loss are common themes for Sarah McLachlan and on Shine On she does not disappoint. Loss transitions to healing and forgiveness on Shine On when McLachlan sings “If this is love beside me / I’m working on forgiveness / Laying the past down behind me / Letting go the ways that I’ve been hurt/ Let the rivers rise and rage / I’ll try and stand with grace / If everything is love” (“Love Beside Me”).

McLachlan blends the personal and political on Shine On. With the song “Brink Of Destruction,” McLachlan carefully weaves a connection between the plight of the world at large with the strength of the musical protagonist’s relationship. While it might be viewed as a simple love song, McLachlan infuses larger themes by playing external imagery with the intimacy of the relationship. There is strength infused in the lines “I hold fast to my destination I know that the road will be long / We light up the sky let the beauty define us and give, / Give it all we got / We’re two side by side with impossible dreams / taking a chance to let love in” (“Brink Of Destruction”) that McLachlan presents well.

Unfortunately, Shine On is short on impressive moments and much of the album would have stood just as well as part of a book of poems. The result is an underwhelming album from an artist whose infrequent albums in recent years has led fans (like me) to anticipate. Shine On fails to live up to the anticipated greatness that fans hoped McLachlan would deliver after years of work.

For other albums that are new this year, please check out my reviews of:
Lights Out - Ingrid Michaelson
Unplugged: The Complete 1991 And 2001 Sessions - R.E.M.
Louder (Deluxe Edition) – Lea Michele
High Hopes - Bruce Springsteen

4.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan Is Closer To Greatness In Its Two-Disc Presentation!

The Good: Good vocals, lyrics, instrumental accompaniment, production, duration
The Bad: Illustrates well the rocky start of Sarah McLachlan
The Basics: The limited edition version of Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan is the definitive version of the album for fans, but for those who enjoy only the radio hits of Sarah McLachlan, it might well illustrate how it took so long for her to break.


One of the best gifts my wife hunted down for me this last holiday season was the two-disc limited edition version of Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan. For my regular readers; you’re not seeing things. I have reviewed Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan (reviewed here!) before, but that one was the single disc version and with twice the content (and discs), the two-disc version is well-worth its own review. With quite a bit more music, the content that came from McLachlan’s breakout album Surfacing and its follow-up, Afterglow, are somewhat diluted. While this might make it seem like the second disc is the main reason to buy the two-disc version of Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan, what it actually does is illustrate what a long trajectory McLachlan had in becoming a powerhouse on the pop-rock circuit. Her sound evolves over the two discs from a nebulous artist determined to show off her vocal range (McLachlan’s sound starts solidly soprano in a way that would make Mariah Carey jealous and is almost unlistenable) to a poet who finds a balance and range that makes her words sparkle.

Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan is a compilation album which was released over five years ago and I was shocked that the two-disc version is so hard to find now. (FYI, for those hunting down the Limited Edition version: some sellers drilled a hole through the packaging for no particular reason I can find, but given how many collectors might want a pristine copy for their collections, it’s smart to ask the seller first) One of the other interesting aspects of listening to the two-disc version of Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan now is how little seems to be missing from it. I know I truly enjoyed Laws Of Illusion, but listening to this album which preceded it, I cannot instantly recall what song from that fine album I would want to add to this!

With twenty-seven songs occupying two discs that clock out at fifty-four minutes and over an hour, respectively, Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan is a decent blend of early works, popular hits, new songs and production versions/remixes. The work is almost entirely the creative endeavor of Sarah McLachlan, though, as she wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. As well, she provides all of the primary vocals and plays piano or guitar on almost every track. What she doesn't do is produce, but given that she has a longtime producer who produced this album as well as providing other instrumental performances on it, one assumes McLachlan is happy with the results.

For those who might not have heard the music of Sarah McLachlan, McLachlan is one of the understated rulers of independent pop-rock music for the 1990s and 2000s. Her piano and vocal-driven songs (mostly pop ballads) tend to be poetic, clear, and highlight the emotions of love, loss and the struggles that come with loss. Her career started in Canada and on the first disc of Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan, the listener hears how she evolved on her first two albums from a Tori Amos (“Vox”)/Madonna (“Steaming”) hybrid into her own distinct musical voice.

Instrumentally, most of the songs are piano-driven. Songs like "Fallen" are deep and melodic, haunting in their tunes while on "Adia," the piano is used more as a support instrument to highlight the tune created by the vocals. Still, on some of her middle and later works, like "Sweet Surrender" and "World On Fire," it is the presence of the electric guitars which are most striking and that shakes the album up well. What is perhaps the most striking aspect of McLachlan’s instrumental accompaniment is the fact that she began her career with some much bigger sounding songs that are powerfully percussion-driven (like “Steaming”). Those songs contain a very different sound than the more familiar ballad-style (like “Ben’s Song”) that listeners might be familiar with. Unfortunately, even on Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan, McLachlan reveals some of her creative weaknesses from early in her carreer; having “Drawn To The Rhythm” and “Hold On” put so close together on the album makes it hard to deny how closely they resemble one another!

Vocally, Sarah McLachlan is an amazing talent with a natural soprano voice. That talent is immediately evident on songs like “Vox” and “Ben’s Song.” The range McLachlan has suits her well, though; as her later works take her down into an alto range, her lyrics become more clear and powerful. While her early songs have an eerie quality brought out by her high pitched vocals, the later songs that go lower bring her lyrical mastery to the forefront and that plays very well to her listeners.

Lyrically, Sarah McLachlan is an able poet and Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan shows that off remarkably well. One of the reasons McLachlan was able to rise to prominence was her use of imagery and emotion in her songs. When she sings “Your love is better than ice cream / Better than anything else that I’ve ever tried” (“Ice Cream”), it is hard not to get a warm feeling and be stimulated by the sense of adoration one has for the love of their life. McLachlan taps into raw emotion of love in an almost effortless way with her comparisons and imagery.

As well, McLachlan is quite adept at making social issues musical, which is something few outside the Folk genre do effectively these days. But, with lines like “I watch the heavens but I find no calling / Something I can do to change what's coming / Stay close to me while the sky is falling / Don't wanna be left alone, don't wanna be alone / The world's on fire and / It's more than I can handle” (“World On Fire”), McLachlan taps amazingly into a sense of universal angst about the times we live in. The Internet may have made the world smaller, but it has allowed the problems that surround us in the world to become more evident and overwhelming and McLachlan presents that incredibly well.

Despite having a decent poetic ability, even McLachlan falls into the trap of predictable rhymes on some of her songs. It is hard not to cringe reading the singsong lines "I knew you wanted to tell me / In your voice there was something wrong / But if you would turn your face away from me / You cannot tell me you're so strong . . . In the terms of the years that pass you by / In the terms of the reasons why" (“Path Of Thorns”). Even with some mediocre rhymes and occasional cliche, though, McLachlan makes her words sound good.

Anyone who wants to cull through most of the truly best of Sarah McLachlan from her first two decades of writing and performing music professionally will find value in the two-disc version of Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan. The well-rounded presentation of McLachlan’s works is well worth the investment for fans and casual fans alike, as well as anyone who wants to get a broader view of one of the radio-hit artists who has a far deeper career than her two most successful albums might suggest.

The best songs are "Hold On" (Disc 1) and “Adia” (Disc 2) and the low points are "Ben’s Song” (Disc 1) and “I Will Remember You (Live)” (Disc 2, which is superfluous considering the original version without crowd noises is present on the disc).

For other Sarah McLachlan reviews, check out my reviews of:
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Live
Surfacing
Mirrorball
Afterglow
Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff
Wintersong
Laws Of Illusion

8/10

Check out how this album stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Lilith Fair: A Celebration Of Women In Music, Not As Good As I Experienced It

The Good: Some great performances by some wonderful musical artists
The Bad: Some lousy performances by some mediocre musical artists
The Basics: Track by track a hit-or-miss album, this is a sampler of women and their guitars performing at Lilith Fair concerts with mixed results.


The very first concert I ever went to was Lilith Fair in Canandaigua, New York. I had graduated college the December before, I was poor, working in an art supply store and recovering from an illness I had had for years. Heather Nova was performing on the second stage and I had been listening to her masterpiece, Siren (reviewed here!) for months as I recuperated and Canandaigua was only twenty-five miles from where I was living. I could not not go. I bought tickets. Then I won some off a local radio station. Regardless, I was going and it was pretty wonderful for me. I mention this because I want to make it clear from the outset that I'm a fan of the Lilith Fair idea and experience.

So, it seemed pretty natural that I would pick up Lilith Faith - A Celebration of Women in Music, a two disc c.d. set featuring 13 tracks (just under 55 minutes of music) and 12 tracks (just under 49 minutes) featuring artist performances from some of the Lilith Fair concerts. Proceeds from purchasing this c.d. go to RAINN, which is a worthy organization to be sure. The important thing to note about this two-disc "Lilith Fair" set is that it is not Lilith Fair, it's a recording. As such, I'm reviewing it as a collection of live tracks from female artists who appear on it.

As the title suggests, this is a collection of live tracks from all female artists, though the range of those artists is somewhat limited. The album opens with Paula Cole, who likely was put there based on her prominence with "This Fire," which was hot at the time. Similarly, The Cardigans are near the front of the first disc, which suggests they were still enjoying their brief popularity in the mainstream when this was released. Of course, Sarah McLachlan pops up on the album, as do Suzanne Vega, Susanna Hoffs (former lead singer of The Bangles), Indigo Girls, Dar Williams and Lisa Loeb.

Mixed in with well known acts, or recognizable artists like Shawn Colvin, Meredith Brooks and Joan Osborne, are an assortment of performers whose one-hit never launched them into one-hit wonder status. This collection is a place where one may hear the works of Autour de Lucie, Lhasa, Patty Griffin, Yungchen Lhamo, and Victoria Williams. Sadly, it turns out virtual unknown Dayna Manning was at the Lilith Fair I attended and she left so little impression that I did not recognize her work on this two-disc set.

So, this is a concept that is clever and difficult to pull off; Sarah McLachlan hopes to get people to purchase this two-disc set based on the strength of known performers and lure them into listening to other artists. It's a good idea and this album just about pulls that off. Wisely, McLachlan and her associated artists give the listener something generally new and different from their repertoire on this album.

So, for example, Meredith Brooks does not perform "Bitch," but rather a song called "Wash My Hands." Lisa Loeb does not perform her megahit "Stay (I Miss You)," but gives the listener "Falling In Love." Joan Osborne distances herself from "One Of Us" with "Ladder" and Paula Cole presents a live version of "Mississippi" that proves that her strength on the album is not produced, but rather a product of her own abilities.

Some of the artists (virtually all of the performers wrote their own music) perform their one-hits or their most popular recognizable tracks. So, for example, I recognized Abra Moore's song "Four Leaf Clover" from the brief time that received radio airplay. Susanna Hoffs opted for a live version of The Bangles's "Eternal Flame" (it's quite wonderful) and Sarah McLachlan performs "Building A Mystery," sounding distinctly different from Mirrorball (reviewed here!). In another sad note, it's quite possible I saw Tracy Bonham perform "The One," as she does on this set, but it left so little impression with me that it seemed new to me when I heard it here.

The album sounds exactly like what one would surmise it would coming from Lilith Fair. It's a lot of women. Women with guitars. Almost universally, the tracks are a woman, usually with a guitar, singing her heart out. Some of the tracks have the usual live conceit of the audience responding to open or close the track or they have the artist speaking to the audience, but largely it's a woman with a guitar rocking her heart out.

This is combined with the occasional foreign language track, usually sounding like a tribal chant of some sort, as Yungchen Lhamo's "Lama Dorje Chang" is. The result is that this is a remarkably inconsistent album. Track to track, its hit or miss. I think there are more hits, but it's unlikely this two-disc set will be palatable to those who do not have a love of female pop-rock or folk-rock artists. That's pretty much what it is.

There are some decent unknowns on here, as well. Frankly, I like the Tracy Bonham song "The One" and I was glad to hear it on this set.

But largely, this was a wash for me and ultimately, my recommendation for this album came down to the idea that I liked where some of the money from the sale of this was going. No doubt there are places online you can rip your favorite songs from without listening to some of the more mediocre tracks, but then RAINN doesn't get its cut and you're not opening up to any other artists.

The best tracks are "Eternal Flame" by Susanna Hoffs on disc one and "What Do You Hear In These Sounds?" by Dar Williams on disc two (it sounds distinctly different from her live rendition of the same song on Out There Live, reviewed here!). The weakest links are "Lhasa" by El Payande (disc 1) and the awful, squeaky closer, "Periwinkle Sky" by Victoria Williams (Disc 2).

For other live albums, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Tina Live In Europe - Tina Turner
Live - James Taylor
In Philadelphia - Wilson Pickett

6/10

Check out how this album stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page where the reviews are organized from best to worst.

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Unimpressive Live - Sarah McLachlan's Lesser Live EP

The Good: Nice booklet, Moments of voice, Some of the lyrics
The Bad: Not the most impressive vocal performance, Short, Very limited in scope and sound
The Basics: As someone who appreciates the works of Sarah McLachlan, this limited edition c.d. is a real let down and not worth the effort to track down.


As a collector, I am always interested when something is released that is limited edition, especially when it actually stays that way. I came across Sarah McLachlan's 1992 limited edition c.d. simply entitled Live and was surprised to find that the 250,000 copies made were the only ones that were made. Period. I almost felt honored putting the disc in my player.

With seven live tracks spanning 32 and a half minutes, Live is a real let down. McLachlan has had trouble impressing me with her live albums before; Mirrorball was a razor decision that turned on her version of the song Possession that sold the album. Live does not have any such luck. There are no tracks on here that are unique to this disc, none that are dramatic reinterpretations of prior works and none that illustrate anything extraordinary about Sarah McLachlan as a singer-songwriter. The performance (this was recorded at Harbourfront, Toronto in September of 1992) might have been intriguing or impressive, but whatever energy the actual show carried, it does not translate well to the disc.

Of the seven songs, six come from Solace, one from McLachlan's debut, Touch. This disc is not a ringing endorsement for either of those discs, nor a flattering advertisement for them or Sarah McLachlan. Opening with the usual pretentious concert noises that accompany most live albums, Live presents "Drawn To The Rhythm," one of McLachlan's standards. Having heard McLachlan live at a concert, it's interesting to note that there is very little differentiation between her performance of "Drawn To The Rhythm" live on this disc and in person. She does not alter the lyrics or add any sort of audibly recognizable "performance" to the track.

Her standard is followed by the uninspired performance of "Back Door Man," then "Home." While both of these tracks feature Sarah McLachlan's trademark "woman at the piano" sound, the vocals are very flat on this recording. They lack the emotion, the passion of Sarah McLachlan and the songs without her zest causes them to simply fall flat. In short, there's nothing extraordinary about her performances that open this disc.

McLachlan's voice comes to its most beautiful on "Lost." As McLachlan perfectly hits the higher registers while singing "Lost in the darkness of a land / Where all the hope that's offered is / Memories of being taken by the hand / And we are led into the sun." Here is a track where McLachlan's vocals are what we hope they would be, what allows us to call her a vocally impressive artist. This is the track that defines the loneliness her voice is able to create and captive her audience with.

Unfortunately, it peaks there, at track four. "I Will Not Forget You" is less clear and articulate, so McLachlan's singing becomes a plaintive wail. Similarly, the live versions of "Black" and "Ben's Song" are less emotionally expressive than they are sloppy. Her high notes on "Black" are shrill and troublesome, more than musical. These live versions do not add anything to the songs and, in fact, seem to capture performances that are mediocre at best.

Sarah McLachlan is an accomplished artist; she wrote or co-wrote all seven tracks on Live. Usually, her vocals are flawless, expressive and angelic, but not on this disc. She is an excellent musician, as well, playing her piano throughout this album, but here again the performances are nothing we haven't already heard from her studio albums. And closing tracks like "I Will Not Forget You" with the canned audience reaction just feels cheap here.

The nicest aspect of Live, and I do try to give credit where credit is due, is the booklet. The booklet that usually has the lyrics for the c.d. here has a mini-biography of Sarah McLachlan and the musicians who toured with her at the performances that made this disc. That's classy. It is printed on nice paper, has decent photographs and the biographies give a decent thumbnail history and it is very cool that she spotlights her accompanists.

But, when the superlative aspect of a limited edition disc are the liner notes, one knows they are in trouble. Live deserved to be limited edition, just to keep this low-quality pressing from turning too many people off of Sarah McLachlan and her works. A better live endeavor would be her Mirrorball c.d. As for this, it's impossible to recommend, even to the fans.

For other Sarah McLachlan reviews, check out my reviews of:
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Surfacing
Mirrorball
Afterglow
Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff
Wintersong
Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan
Laws Of Illusion

4/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Sarah McLachlan's Magnum Opus Turns Out Not To Be: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

The Good: Lyrics and voice, Moments of music
The Bad: Largely overproduced
The Basics: Falling short of the masterpiece fans want to believe it is from the preponderance of overproduction elements, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is good, but not as good as it should be.


I cannot think of an album I have been looking forward to listening to more in recent memory than Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. It has been hailed by fans as McLachlan's masterpiece and hearing rarities and live versions of some of the songs from this album in the last few days, I went into this listening experience with genuine anticipation. I was eager for this album and now that I've listened to it four times, it's with a weird sense of sadness that I write my disappointment.

To be sure, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is better than most pop-rock albums out there, certainly in today's market. To be equally sure, it is not the master work of Sarah McLachlan that her loyal fans from her earliest days would have us believe. The irony of this whole situation is that most of the fans and reviewers who trumpeted Fumbling Towards Ecstasy berate the follow-up, the commercially successful Surfacing as being somehow less artistic than this earlier disc.

I find this ironic because in the last three days, I have listened to three different versions of Sarah McLachlan's song "Possession" (the first track on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy). On Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff, McLachlan has a terrible mix where the song is redone as a dance track. On Mirrorball it is acoustic, echoing and haunting. Here on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, McLachlan creates the track as a produced number that uses artificial reverb, backing instrumentals that include keyboards and a drum machine. The net result is that the song is overproduced for the starkness of the lyrics.

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy suffers as a whole album from numerous tracks that fill the music up with sound - usually more instruments, reverb or other production elements - that detract from the pure emotion of the lyrics. Say what you will about Surfacing, but overproduction is not a problem on such wrenching emotional tracks as "Adia," "I Love You" and "Full of Grace." Indeed, as a slightly more mature artist, McLachlan seemed to feel more free to experiment with a more minimalist musical accompaniment that accented the starkness of the lyrics of love and loss that she sang about.

To be sure, those thematic elements are present on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. Lyrically, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is clearly where McLachlan is reaching the peak of her profession as a poet, a peak she maintains her position at on Surfacing and Afterglow. McLachlan is a master of emotive expressiveness with a strong grasp on imagery and creative diction. For example, on "Wait," she vividly paints a picture by singing "Under a blackened sky far beyond the glaring streetlights / Sleeping on empty dreams the vultures lie in wait. / You lay down beside me then / You were with me every waking hour / So close I could feel your breath." She is captivating with her language and her mastery of poetics is one of the best in the industry.

Vocally, McLachlan is amazing. Her alto voice is articulate and expressive, reaching into the higher ranges deftly. On "Ice Cream," makes such simple lines like "Your love is better than ice cream / Better than anything else that I've tried / And your love is better than ice cream . . ." come alive with the light presentation she sings them with. She has a voice that is uncommon in pop-rock and it's easy to tell that this is a woman who has immense talent.

The unfortunate thing is that here she is not so free to express that amazing talent. "Hold On" suffers because the music is so full. The lyrics are sharp and contain the subtle menace when she warns, "Hold on / Hold on to yourself / For this is gonna hurt like hell." When this same line closes the track, it's emotional resonance is gutted because of the overbearing keyboards and drums. (The superior version is her live take on this on Mirrorball.)

It's easy to see why fans are so excited about Sarah McLachlan; she is a genuine artist. She wrote all twelve tracks on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - save one which she co-wrote - and she provides all of the vocals for the album. As well, she plays guitars, piano, and acoustic guitars on the various tracks. Even without any production credit on the album, McLachlan is integrally involved in generating this music; it is HER expression of emotions. She even did artwork inside the liner notes. It's easy to see why fans are so much in love with Sarah McLachlan.

It's also hard to deny that many of them are blinded to how overproduced this album is, especially in comparison to the lyrics. While "Ice" has a stark sound that resonates with the lyrics, it is an exception on the album. While Sarah McLachlan is less produced on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy than, say, Janet Jackson and UB40 who were having commercial success when this album was released, it is still overproduced for the style of music. Hearing these songs with the emotional intimacy of the lyrics and the bassline musical tracks would be a treat and would have produced the masterpiece fans want.

Alas, this falls just short of that.

The best track might well be "Ice Cream," (actually the hidden version of "Possession" at the end is actually better!) though the worst is the fairly unmemorable "Mary," which left no real impression even after multiple listens.

For other Sarah McLachlan reviews, check out my reviews of:
Surfacing
Mirrorball
Afterglow
Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff
Wintersong
Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan
Laws Of Illusion

6/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Just Enough In The Live Album: The Razor Decision On Mirrorball

The Good: Some decent live interpretations of favorite Sarah McLachlan songs, Good voice, lyrics
The Bad: Pretentious live noises, Nothing genuinely new, "Adia" is terrible!
The Basics: While not Sarah McLachlan's most original outing, Mirrorball makes some decent live versions of past favorites for all listeners.


Live albums by any artist take a lot to get a positive review from me. In fact, it was agonizing over Oasis' terrible Familiar To Millions (reviewed here!) that I originally realized that I could not in good conscious recommend something by an artist I loved that was truly so terrible. For a long time, the only two live albums that truly satisfied my criteria for recommending were Heather Nova's Wonderlust (reviewed here!) and Dar Williams' Out There Live (reviewed here!). In a razor decision, today I add Mirrorball, Sarah McLachlan's live endeavor.

McLachlan, like Nova and Williams, does not have a decisive "Greatest Hits" compilation (at least at the time of this writing), so Mirrorball allows the casual Sarah McLachlan fan a chance to get some of McLachlan's better songs in one place, without what some would consider "the fat" of the non-singles tracks. With McLachlan, this is a hard argument to make. Released between Surfacing and Afterglow, Mirrorball is an opportunity for casual listeners of Sarah McLachlan to get her best hits off Surfacing along with previous radio hits and the single "I Will Remember You" that did generally well on the U.S. charts. It is an opportunity for fans of McLachlan to get a virtual "Best of" Sarah McLachlan for Surfacing and the prior albums.

What I'm looking for in a live album is an opportunity to hear songs I enjoy performed in a meaningfully different way than what appears on the standard album or radio edit of a song. Live shows are VERY difficult to sell me on in a c.d. because they usually lack the energy of the moment, any truly original material (like artists telling the story behind a song) tends to hold up poorly upon many relistenings, and whenever a song is reinterpreted or represented, there is the potential for the song to be remade poorly. Sometimes, what pushes a live album over the edge is something that one may only get on the live album.

Mirrorball is a tough call on some of those fronts. The audience is conspicuous throughout the album with appropriately timed applause, cheers and singing along. The audience, however, is subdued enough that there's no real energy on the album conveyed by the audience. That is to say, the placement of the audience does nothing significant but remind us that this is a live album.

The thing is, fans of Sarah McLachlan - even those who like her music solely from the radio - will know right away that this is a live album, without the kind of canned cheering the is produced into the album at predictable intervals. Starting with "Building A Mystery," McLachlan assures the listener that this will not be the standard album presentation by throwing in an abrupt (and deafening, if that can make sense) stop in the music to accent one of the refrains. It's clearly a different interpretation.

The album continues with a haunting version of "Hold On." My only experience with "Hold On" thus far (I'm anticipating my reviewer's copy of Fumbling Toward Ecstasy any day now!) was three days ago when I caught the music video for this song. I was not impressed with the video or the song. The Mirrorball version seems slower, more haunting and overall more stark than the produced version, which works exceptionally well for accenting such lines as "Hold on to yourself / This is gonna hurt like hell."

McLachlan runs into the problem with reinterpretation on one of my favorite Sarah McLachlan tracks, though. On "Adia," the tempo is faster, McLachlan has more accompaniment and the whole version sounds more jazzed up. This is a disservice to the stark beauty of the song where McLachlan quietly wailed out, "Believe me Adia / We are still innocent / It's easy / We all falter / Does it matter?" Here the song loses its punch and for some reason on this track the audience is accented more, further gutting the emotional resonance of the song.

What saves this album ultimately are the strengths that usually sell me on a Sarah McLachlan album; the lyrics and the impressive voice of McLachlan. On "I Love You," McLachlan's voice is angelic and melodic in ways that make anyone who can't sing (that includes me!) envious. And McLachlan is an able poet, making listening to most of her music easy on the ears, even if some of her lyrics are hard (emotionally) to hear.

On McLachlan's Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff, one of my problems was how songs like "Possession" were remixed as dance tracks. Even without hearing the originals, I knew that this song that sang ". . .Voices trapped in yearning / Memories trapped in time . The night is my companion and solitude my guide . . ." ("Possession") was not a dance number. On Mirrorball, "Possession" is restored to what I may only assume is its rightful place as a masterfully wrenching dreamsong that, well, possesses the listener.

Mirrorball might actually be better as an intro to those who have not yet become fans of Sarah McLachlan than for those who have enjoyed her previous studio endeavors, as there isn't anything truly unique to this album.

The best track is either "Hold On" or "Possession," the low point is "Adia," which is something I never thought I'd be able to write!

For other Sarah McLachlan reviews, check out my reviews of:
Surfacing
Afterglow
Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff
Wintersong
Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan
Laws Of Illusion

5/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It's Not Sam . . . It's The Beatles! (Sort Of)

The Good: Some great covers of songs by the Beatles
The Bad: Nothing explosively brilliant in the reinterpretations
The Basics: In a remarkably average musical outing, decent artists are paired with a song by The Beatles that will not challenge them and they rise to the occasion.


I remember watching and enjoying I Am Sam (reviewed here!), but truth be told, I do not recall anything especially wonderful about the soundtrack while the movie was going on. I mean, Batman Returns, The Last of the Mohicans and The Empire Strike Back all had soundtracks that had (at least moments) tracks that were instantly recognizable or truly resonated with me. So, as I've been looking up more music on some of my favorite artists (Heather Nova, Sarah McLachlan, etc.) I kept seeing "Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture I Am Sam" coming up in my searches and I was a little surprised. It became something I figured I might as well pick up and give a spin.

With seventeen tracks, clocking in at 55 minutes, this album is a celebration of the music of The Beatles. Seventeen different artists each covered a different Beatles song. Truth be told, none of the tracks sparked a single memory from the movie, which as I understand used the cover versions of the Beatles songs because Michael Jackson was charging $300,000 for use of each original track. So, this review will instead focus on I Am Sam (the soundtrack album) as an album independent endeavor.

It's dull. It's not entirely bad or anything, but it is dull. All seventeen tracks are simply the individual artists singing songs by The Beatles. This is a special disappointment for me as a fan of Heather Nova. Heather Nova does a cover of Bruce Springsteen's classic "I'm On Fire" on her live album Wonderlust (reviewed here!). What makes her cover different from an artist simply singing another artist's song is that Nova makes the song her own, changing the gender of the subject of the song, changing the pace and basically reinterpreting or recreating the song. Perhaps the best cover song I've ever heard was Sophie B. Hawkins's reimagining of Bob Dylan's "I Want You" from her debut album (reviewed here!). It was such a profoundly different song that when I first heard Dylan's hokey honky-tonk original I was baffled. I said, "I recognize the words, but this song is terrible! What is it?!" Hawkins completely reimagines the song and she owns it. So profound is her version, she owns it!

There is nothing remotely close to that on I Am Sam. This is not so much artists "covering" the Beatles as they are singing the songs of the group. They don't interpret, they don't add their own flavor, they don't have the zest of the artist performing the song. So, for example, Eddie Vedder sings "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and it doesn't push his range, it does not challenge him and he does not challenge it. He keeps it safe and Beatle-esque. Song after song, it's current artists singing Beatles songs. They aren't performing them, they're just singing them. Were I that Simon guy from "American Idol," I'd likely be more succinct and say "It's pure karaoke!"

And it is. All seventeen tracks are perfectly chosen to fit the artist who sings them. So, for example, "Blackbird" sounds perfectly natural coming from Sarah McLachlan and The Black Crowes singing "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" sounds like they've been singing it forever. Honestly, if Eddie Vedder was going to sing a song by The Beatles, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" would have been one of the three I'd figure he would do and do well. If, that is, I was trying to match artists to a song they already sound like.

Even Heather Nova doing "We Can Work It Out" has the feel of fitting her range and ability. So, in short, I Am Sam has the songs, but it's nothing terribly new. One spin for the novelty of hearing the songs by the Beatles performed by artists you care about will likely do it for you.

The only real exception is Nick Cave singing "Let It Be." Cave does not make significant changes to the song, but he sings the song with his distinct baritone and sense of rhythm (he puts some stops in throughout the song that seem very much him). As I understand it, the European version has three additional tracks, including Cave singing George Harrison's "Here Comes The Sun." I would have liked to hear that.

But, as I said, this is a very safe album. This is Nick Cave singing "Let It Be," not "Octopus's Garden." This has Sheryl Crow singing "Mother Nature's Son," not They Might Be Giants covering "Yellow Submarine." It's a collection of safe songs performed safely by safe artists (how about a NIN - or Marliyn Manson - cover of "Revolution" or "Help!") and in that way, it's a serious disappointment. I'm not much of a fan of either NIN or Manson, but it strikes me that if one wants to hear something really covered, truly reinterpreted, you can't go with safe artists that fit the exact mold of the song you want played. And I Am Sam is all very safe pairings.

I pretty much never do this, but here's what the album consists of:
Aimee Mann and Michael Penn - "Two of Us"
Sarah McLachlan - "Blackbird"
Rufus Wainright - "Across The Universe"
The Wallflowers - "I'm Looking Through You"
Eddie Vedder - "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"
Ben Harper - "Strawberry Fields Forever"
Sheryl Crow - "Mother Nature's Son"
Ben Folds - "Golden Slumbers"
The Vines - "I'm Only Sleeping"
Stereophonics - "Don't Let Me Down"
The Black Crowes - "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"
Chocolate Genius - "Julia"
Heather Nova - "We Can Work It Out"
Howie Day - "Help!"
Paul Westerberg - "Nowhere Man"
Grandaddy - "Revolution"
Nick Cave - "Let It Be"

If you are obsessed with any of those artists or any of those songs, that's who and what is on this album. The truth is, if you have a favorite artist on this list, odds are there is a way to legally download an individual track to get just the artist/song you want. It's probably a better investment than buying the album. That is, unless you like unremarkable karaoke of the Beatles.

Ironically, there's not a single Beatles cover by Oasis here (Oasis is always being compared in the media to the Beatles and has done several covers of Beatles songs), but then if there had been, I've a pretty good idea what track it would have been. The best song is "Let It Be" (sorry Heather!) and the low point is "Julia." I'm going to go cleanse my palate with Dar Williams's cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" (from My Better Self, reviewed here!) and try to remember what it's like when an artist takes a known work and does something surprising with it.

For other soundtrack reviews, please visit my takes on:
Watchmen 2-track single
Songs In The Key Of Springfield from The Simpsons
Dead Man Walking Soundtrack

5/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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When Did McLachlan Sell Herself As Madonna . . . And Why?

The Good: Some excellent vocals, Some intriguing arrangements
The Bad: Some disturbing musical moments, Overall underwhelming presentation
The Basics: In a disappointing outing from one of my favorite artists, Sarah McLachlan alters some of her decent songs in tragic ways and presents some additional tracks we can live without.


Sarah McLachlan is an artist who has continually impressed me with how she writes and sings her poems. She is one of the talents on the whole women's pop-rock movement that has advanced feminist causes in a positive way consistently. As the founder of Lilith Fair, she created a phenomenon. I own - and frequently listen to - her albums Surfacing and Afterglow. So, I was enthusiastic when I sat down to listen to Sarah McLachlan's album Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff. For those who want the bottomline first, I won't be adding this to my permanent collection.

With thirteen tracks, Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff clocks in at 56 minutes and presents live versions of McLachlan favorites, songs not previously available easily and covers of other artist's works and standards. McLachlan puts her own twist on Gordon Lightfoot's "Song For A Winter's Night" and Joni Mitchell's "Blue." And while her version of "Gloomy Sunday" might please her fans, I'm still partial to Heather Nova's version (from South, reviewed here!). McLachlan's version is nothing extraordinary and I found her pitch to be troublesome on this track.

Coming into this disc, the only songs I knew were "Full of Grace" (from Surfacing), "I Will Remember You" (from the radio), and "Drawn To The Rhythm" (from Lilith Fair when I saw her perform it live). So, I was in no way prejudiced against the content going in; it was partially tracks I had an inkling I would enjoy. The thing about this album is, it feels like b-sides. It feels like the leftovers, the album has a general sense of not being up to the usual standards of Sarah McLachlan.

For example, "As the End Draws Near," is listed as a Manufacture track with Sarah McLachlan as the guest vocalist. The song is performed by McLachlan with a sound more like Madonna than McLachlan. The number is a dance-pop spectacle that is lacking in everything that makes Sarah McLachlan an individual, independent artist. Sadly, it is followed up by "Vox (Extended Remix)" which also has a pop beat laced heavily with synths, making the whole track sound . . . manufactured.

"Manufactured" or "assembled" is a good way to describe Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff. More than feeling like this is not McLachlan's best work being showcased, this feels like a collection of songs swept up and put together. In short, as an album, this is an exceptionally weak listening experience with little or no cohesion between tracks. Instead, this is a cherry-picked sampling (indeed, only the poppy extended remixes of "As The End Draws Near" and "Vox" fit well side by side). The result is a disconcerting overall listening experience.

As for the live tracks, which include "Gloomy Sunday" and a live version of "Drawn To The Rhythm," they do not push or reinterpret these already established songs. "Drawn To The Rhythm" sounds almost identical to the album version or how she performed it when I saw her at Lilith Fair. On Heather Nova's live album, Wonderlust, Nova performs some of her standards in ways not presented on the album, in "I'm The Girl" going so far as to add additional lyrics. On the songs that are established tracks of McLachlan's that appear on this album, there is no real creative reinterpretation.

Certainly, there are remixes. "Fear," "Shelter," "As The End Draws Near," "Vox," "Into The Fire," and "Possession" are all - apparently - prior Sarah McLachlan songs that have been musically retransposed. The question is, what does it add? I would pay to hear Britney Spears sing "Baby One More Time" as a soft, slow ballad (like the lyrics indicate it ought to be); nothing here is so positively reinterpreted. Nothing here brings out something deeper from the lyrics. With the possible exception of "Shelter (Violin Mix)," the remixes are dance-tempo remixes and hearing Sarah McLachlan soulfully sing "I am the spark" to a dance beat ("Into The Fire") just sounds cheap.

In short, on most of these remixes, there is the sense that McLachlan got the track right originally and this is just tweaking for the sake of putting out an album. It's not enough to offer listeners a real value, though I'm sure that diehard fans will need to have this collection anyway.

For those on the fence, the best this album presents are the lyrics of Sarah McLachlan. She is an able poet and the songs on here that she wrote generally have strong, emotionally-driven lyrics. So, for example, on "Shelter," McLachlan opens with, "Crowded into smallest spaces / While outside all of nature cries / It's known to be cruel and unfair / But there is no place to hide . . ." She has a masterful sense of poetics.

Generally, McLachlan at her piano is enough to satisfy me musically. It's a shame too often these remixes forsake her natural musical talents for pop-dance beats that dissociate themselves completely from the wrenching lyrics she has written. It's unfortunate especially because usually the more we get from an artist who is a genuine artist, the better. This might well be the exception that proves the rule.

The best track is "Shelter (Violin Mix)" which maintains the emotional resonance of the lyrics with its musical depth. The most insulting of the dance remixes is probably "Possession (Rabbit In The Moon Remix)" which ends this haphazard collection of tracks on a ridiculous note.

For other Sarah McLachlan reviews, check out my reviews of:
Surfacing
Afterglow
Wintersong
Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan
Laws Of Illusion

4.5/10

Check out how this album stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page where reviews are organized from best work to worst!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Surfacing Broke Sarah McLachlan Into The Legitimate Mainstream . . . And Made Me A Fan! (My New Artist Of The Month!)

The Good: Voice, Lyrics, Decent music
The Bad: Liner notes are unhelpful, SHORT!
The Basics: With powerful lyrics, intimate vocals and backing instrumentals that support, not override, McLachlan's voice, Surfacing may well be Sarah McLachlan's masterpiece, as well as her greatest commercial success.


I've had Surfacing in my permanent collection for almost a decade now and I would have sworn that I had reviewed it, so I am reviewing it now and making Sarah McLachlan my Artist Of The Month! Surfacing may well be Sarah McLachlan's pop-rock masterpiece and it's certainly worth your attention.

With only ten tracks (the final one being an instrumental, even!), Surfacing is the album that introduced Sarah McLachlan to the mainstream - i.e. not just college radio or feminist audience - U.S. audience, though she had already been a legitimate hit in Canada. Surfacing is the album that brought audiences the singles "Building A Mystery," "Sweet Surrender," "Adia," and "Angel." It's rare for anyone these days to get four hits on the radio (not everyone can be Kelly Clarkson!), but McLachlan's Surfacing is such an ambitious musical endeavor that combined with her amazing marketing tool (Lilith Fair) at the time, it's easy to see why Surfacing was such a success. It's an album that if you still don't own, there's no better time than now to pick it up.

For those who have not heard Surfacing or are unfamiliar with the works of Sarah McLachlan, McLachlan is a true artist, with Surfacing being a true feat of her talents. McLachlan wrote or co-wrote all ten tracks. She provides the primary vocals for the tracks and plays electric and acoustic guitar and/or piano on each track (some of the tracks she plays a guitar and piano on!). She was integral to all levels of creating this album, though she was not listed with any producing credit. For the most part, though, Surfacing is the result of her creative enterprise and her vision for what she wants to express musically.

McLachlan's album is dominated by her smoky alto vocals. On some tracks, she ventures competently into soprano range, but for the most part, she is hypnotic in the mid-range for a female artist. Her voice is smooth and hypnotic on songs like "Angel," wrenching and hurt on "Adia," and the most mainsteam, understated vocalist on "Full of Grace" (one may picture her alone at her piano with just a beam of light illuminating her through a smoky club by the sound of the song). She creates a distinctly pop song with "Sweet Surrender" and is the embodiment of loss and loneliness with her stark "Do What You Have To Do."

McLachlan's primary musical instrument is her voice and she uses it to emote the powerful poetry she writes. Like Fiona Apple or Sally Ellyson (lead singer of Hem), McLachlan's voice is melodic, harmonizes perfectly with the instruments she plays her music on and is placed - soundwise - front and center for the listener by the production talents that created Surfacing (in this case Pierre Marchand). As well, McLachlan's Surfacing is able to present emotive and complex lyrics expertly because McLachlan is singing from her own heart. When one is singing their own works, they seem to be able to get around the more complex lines and concepts better than when presenting another's musical/poetic vision.

And as a lyricist, McLachlan is working near the top of her game on Surfacing. While the album deals with the pop music standards of love and loss, McLachlan's take on them are the adult version of the usually teen-dominated Top 40 market's themes. So, while the Spice Girls were cracking up the charts with juvenile hits like "Wannabe," McLachlan was softly emoting with, "Just you and me / On this island of hope / A breath between us could be miles / Let me surround you / My sea to your shore / Let me be the calm you seek" ("I Love You"). Damn! How was that not one of her four hits off Surfacing?! The point here is that McLachlan's work on Surfacing is not just comprised of the radio hits. The other tracks are equally worthy of your time and attention. The radio tracks are the teasers for the emotionally relevant, amazingly constructed songs that follow after.

McLachlan's songs are highly poetic and emotional and it's rare to see such talent rewarded. It's hard not to become entranced with hooks like "Spend all your time waiting / For that second chance / For a break that would make it okay / There's always one reason / To feel not good enough / And it's hard at the end of the day . . ." when it is placed next to a stark piano ("Angel"). McLachlan is brilliant at constructing music.

Surfacing is an intimate album and as such it has some musical limitations. McLachlan is cautious to not overproduce the album and as a result, the constant closeness of the vocals and the understated pianos and guitars (tracks like "Building A Mystery" and "Sweet Surrender" are the musical exceptions on the album) can make the listener feel lost in a very empty place - it's odd, isn't it how humans associate the closeness of a single voice as the dominant sound with the echoes one hears in a giant space in darkness, eh? McLachlan's sound is very much the echoes of a performer on stage as opposed to the closeness of a lover whispering into your ear. When the listener accepts that, this becomes an indispensable album.

This is an essential album for anyone who loves women, wants to hear a strong female voice and anyone who loves great writing. It is probably not for misogynists or those looking for a distinctly male take on pop-rock music. It is for those looking for a quiet, intimate musical experience, not a "rock to the end of the night" dance festival.

The best track (and it's a tough call) is probably still "Adia." The weak point is "Black and White," though I still find myself humming that track from time to time.

For other Sarah McLachlan reviews, check out my reviews of:
Afterglow
Wintersong
Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan
Laws Of Illusion

9/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Still Glowing, Afterglow Is Sarah McLachlan's Suicide Album!

The Good: Beautiful music, Amazing voice, Good lyrics, Themes
The Bad: Exceptionally depressing fare, Could stand to be longer
The Basics: With brilliant lyrics and a well-developed musical sound, Afterglow is a surprisingly good listen that will allow listeners to dwell on their emotions.


There is an art to selling sadness. While anyone may make a work of art that has the potential to uplift, it's a far harder thing to make music that makes one think of the darkest regions of our being and still want to listen. Sarah McLachlan is one of the few artists that is able to articulately envelop the listener in a cocoon of the most sad, aching emotions expressed with her beautiful voice and leave the listener wanting more. Given how close to thematically homogenous this album is, it's impressive one wants more after hearing it.

But I do. That's the power of Sarah McLaughlan on Afterglow.

Afterglow is an album of contradictions; it is sad, but the listener yearns for more of the same. One of my pet peeves, artists releasing singles that are only the first few tracks, is present on this album. In fact, the first three tracks are the album's three released singles, in their order of release "Fallen," "World on Fire," and "Stupid." The thing is, while "Fallen" is arguably the best track and deserved to be the first single, other tracks are phenomenal and the listener does not feel let down when the first track ends. This is not an album one thinks "I've heard the best already, I can turn it off."

Afterglow is almost unrelentingly sad, though. Opening with "Fallen," a ballad about plunging from the path one expected to follow, Afterglow explores emotions of sadness and loss. There is a strange sense of irony to knowing McLachlan had a baby between Surfacing and this album, given how depressing most of the songs are.

Actually, "depressing" is a horrible word for the songs on Afterglow. It implies that if you listen to this disc, you will become sad. No, this is an album that deals with sad themes, depressing aspects, but it explores them, makes the listener empathetic and enveloped, but not crushingly sad.

So, while "Fallen" laments ". . . the bitter taste of losing everything / I've held so dear" and one might recall times we have felt so low, it does not crush our soul. There's no way to describe it better; somehow McLachlan allows the listener to recall the most painful moments of our existence and she and her music bring us out of that recollection again.

It's not like there's a lot of happiness on this album. "Push" is arguably the most upbeat, as a "thank you" to the person who puts up with the narrator with consistent love and regard. It's a beautiful song, actually. And unlike "Drifting," which is a longing song begging for the narrator's lover to return, "Push" feels like the recipient of the song might actually appreciate the thoughts or even be listening. Outside "Push," though, the songs explore the realms of sadness and outright despair.

Sarah McLachlan's primary instruments are the piano and her voice and she plays both wonderfully on Afterglow. This is an album with a rich sound as she is often accompanied by guitars, bass and drums. Many of the songs have an orchestral sound to them and it works as an album that fully immerses and enchants the listener. There may be no better way to describe it.

Anyone who likes female artists will appreciate Afterglow. With her distinctive voice that dominates the alto and soprano ranges, she is a musical force. And the poetry of her lyrics is her own. She wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the disc making it truly her musical vision.

Who will not like this disc? Well, anyone who doesn't like the female perspective. Tackling loneliness and insecurities and longings from a distinctly feminine perspective, Afterglow is accessible to anyone who wants to be emotionally connected to it. But the listener has to be willing to listen with an ear for sadness. Outside the people who are not in the mood to let their demons dance while they cry, Afterglow is for!

This is a perfect companion album to Surfacing and it shows real growth in McLachlan's ability and articulations. It is amazing to me, given the quality of "Fallen" how long I went before purchasing this disc! It's on heavy rotation at my house now and I suspect it will quickly find its way to the top of most any listener's list if they give it a chance.

The best track is "Push," the only unremarkable track is the finale, "Dirty Little Secret."

For other Sarah McLachlan reviews, check out my reviews of:
Wintersong
Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan
Laws Of Illusion

7.5/10

Check out how this album stacks up against other album and singles I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page where the reviews are organized best to worst.

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan (1-Disc) Is Fine, But There's A Better Version!

The Good: Good vocals, lyrics, instrumental accompaniment, production, duration
The Bad: The two-disc version is better and worth the attention of anyone who likes Sarah McLachlan.
The Basics: A generally pleasant compilation with two new songs, Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan is a good album usurped by a superior two-disc version!


Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan is a compilation album which was released two and a half years ago with no real fanfare and the only thing more surprising to me than fans bothering with the one-disc version is that the album did not do better. Riding high on her mainstream success from Surfacing, the Mirrorball single "I Will Remember You," and then Afterglow and Wintersong (reviewed here!), in addition to her Lilith Fair concert series, one would have thought that a compilation album like Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan would have been a slam-dunk commercially for McLachlan. Strangely, it did not seem to be. If that seems to contradict my ultimate "not recommend" of this album, there is a very simple reason for that. There is a two-disc version of the same album which has all of the content on this disc, plus a whole bonus album of music. Anyone who truly loves the works of Sarah McLachlan will want that and those who don't know, should pick that album up instead as it offers a broader selection of McLachlan's musical masterpieces or move right on to her new album Laws Of Illusion (reviewed here!).

With only sixteen songs occupying 67:43, Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan is very much the typical contemporary "Best Of" album in that it has fourteen songs, most of which are recognizable to American and European radio listeners for the last five years alongside two new songs, which McLachlan smartly puts at the back of the album. The work is almost entirely the creative endeavor of Sarah McLachlan, though, as she wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. As well, she provides all of the primary vocals and plays piano or guitar on each track. What she doesn't do is produce, but given that she has a long-time producer who produced this album as well as providing other instrumental performances on it, one assumes McLachlan is happy with the results.

For those who might not have heard the music of Sarah McLachlan, McLachlan is one of the understated rulers of independent pop-rock music for the last decade. Her piano and vocal-driven songs (mostly pop ballads) tend to be poetic, clear, and highlight the emotions of love, loss and the struggles that come with loss. As a testament to her quality - which was known longer in Canada than in the U.S. - listening to Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan took me back to some of the most tumultuous years of my life. Listening to the radio hits of Sarah McLachlan, which is largely what this album actually is, I recalled younger love, death, the torment of a loved one and the rising feeling that the world was changing and that I wanted to get involved in making changes to it. All of that came from listening to about nine of the sixteen songs and that McLachlan's music still has such power and resonance is an impressive thing.

Instrumentally, most of the songs are piano-driven. Songs like "Fallen" are deep and melodic, haunting in their tunes while on "Adia," the piano is used more as a support instrument to highlight the tune created by the vocals. Still, on some of her middle and later works, like "Sweet Surrender" and "World On Fire," it is the presence of the electric guitars which are most striking and that shakes the album up well. On her two new songs, "Don't Give Up On Us" and "U Want Me 2," McLachlan finds a new balance and has a more keyboard-driven sound.

Vocally, Sarah McLachlan is an amazing talent with a natural soprano voice. Indeed, one would pretty much have to not have listened to pop or adult contemporary radio at all in the last five years to have not heard McLachlan's amazing pitch and presentation of "Angel." That song is striking and indicative of her talents to both explore the higher vocal registers and make what she sings there sound perfectly clear. Still, McLachlan manages to keep from being predictable and it is the echoes and production enhancements on songs like "Hold On" and "Adia" which make those songs have a truly eerie punch.

Lyrically, Sarah McLachlan is an able poet and Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan shows that off remarkably well. Even though the album focuses on the known songs, there is a reason songs like "Building A Mystery" and "I Will Remember You" performed as well as they did. One of those reasons is certainly McLachlan's use of imagery in her songs, a trait she carries onto her new song in a more limited fashion when she sings, "Am I living alone here, / Or have I turned to dust? / It hurts, it hurts to wait for just a little love. / You must give me a sign love. . . I'll hold you through your darkest hour. / I'll be using all my power, / So I can reach you. / Oh my love, don't give up on us" (Don't Give Up On Us).

When she is not employing decent analogies and telling musical storysongs, McLachlan cuts through to the listener with direct language on complex emotions. McLachlan's music is often melancholy, but she often sings about hope in relationships. With lines like "So what are we saying / Our eden's a failure / A made-up story to fit / The picture-perfect world / The one with I do / And I love you / And we are made / For each other / Is forever over now" (U Want Me 2) McLachlan clearly and painfully expressed loss, but she recovers with a chorus that seems insistent on saving love. Love is the key to everything on almost all of the songs and it is the loss of love and self that make some of the songs, most notably "Fallen" truly horrific.

Despite having a decent poetic ability, even McLachlan falls into the trap of predictable rhymes on some of her songs. It is hard not to cringe reading the singsong lines "I knew you wanted to tell me / In your voice there was something wrong / But if you would turn your face away from me / You cannot tell me you're so strong . . . In the terms of the years that pass you by / In the terms of the reasons why" (Path Of Thorns). Even with some mediocre rhymes, though, McLachlan makes her words sound good.

Anyone who likes pop-rock that is deeper than most mainstream pop will find something to love on Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan. But any audience who will enjoy what is on here will find the richness of the additional music found on the two-disc version to be a much better investment. For only a few dollars more, listeners get some gems which might not have been played on American radio, but the listener will wish they had!

The best song is "Adia," the low point is "The Path Of Thorns (Terms)."

For other strong female artists, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Many Great Companions - Dar Williams
300 Days At Sea - Heather Nova
Timbre - Sophie B. Hawkins

7/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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