Sarah Mclachlan Wintersongs

It’s been seven years since Sarah McLachlan released Afterglow, her last album of original material. That’s a lifetime in the pop world, perhaps, but McLachlan handles her absence well, filling Laws of Illusion with the same sort of adult contemporary fare that made her a star in the first place. The market has changed since McLachlan’s late-‘90s heyday; pop starlets like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift are now among the industry’s most highly prized female songwriters, making McLachlan seem a bit staid and outdated by comparison. With the 2010 revival of Lilith Fair, though, she has somewhat reconstructed the world as it existed a decade ago, and Laws of Illusion furthers the fantasy by taking its cues from Clinton-era folk-pop.

Shine On captures Sarah McLachlan at a period of transition, switching labels (she's signed with Verve after decades at Arista) and experiencing the death of her father and divorce from her husband…

Listening to Sarah McLachlan perform live is a lot like listening to her records. Like 1999's multi-platinum-selling Mirrorball, Afterglow Live relies on the breathy Canadian's fluid and faultless vocals and performances – by McLachlan and band alike – that are so spot-on that they may well have been cut in the studio…

During the mid-'90s, Sarah McLachlan was a near-ubiquitous presence in pop music, establishing adult alternative pop radio with 1994's Fumbling Toward Ecstasy and 1997's Surfacing and spearheading the popular Lilith Fair touring festival, but once the last Lilith wound up in 1999, she retreated from the spotlight, had a baby, and seemingly retired from music. Four years later, she made a typically subdued return with Afterglow, her first album in six years. Not much has changed in the time she was away. Afterglow is firmly within the McLachlan signature sound – a softly tuneful, mildly atmospheric blend of classic singer/songwriterism and a touch of vaguely dreamy alternative pop, all shined and immaculately produced by Pierre Marchand.

Released at the front end of 1999's Lilith Fair, Mirrorball is a take-home sampler of the live performances that catapulted Sarah McLachlan into the modern rock stratosphere. Over half of the album's 14 songs are radio hits (including four of the first five), proving McLachlan's worth as a pop songstress bar none, but also hinting at an underlying stagnation in her recent musical output…

Certainly not the style of music McLachlan is known for, but Remixed is an album that will reach a new audience demographic that can at the very least appreciate her gorgeous voice, while serving as a continuing showcase for popular remixers and DJs now playing at a club near you…

Released at the front end of 1999's Lilith Fair, Mirrorball is a take-home sampler of the live performances that catapulted Sarah McLachlan into the modern rock stratosphere. Over half of the album's 14 songs are radio hits (including four of the first five), proving McLachlan's worth as a pop songstress bar none, but also hinting at an underlying stagnation in her recent musical output. Though fans of McLachlan and folks who missed her Lilith performances will likely enjoy Mirrorball, it's a little too by-the-book to win any converts or please critical listeners. There is little dialogue between songs, for example, and the sound quality is so pristine that if it weren't for the occasional hoot and holler from the audience, one would never know it's a live album.

Solace is at once comforting, mysterious, expansive, timeless, and familiar. The sophomore jinx was certainly eluded here, as McLachlan sets forth a superior collection of songs and performances with the help of longtime producer Pierre Marchand. The opening track, "Drawn to the Rhythm," serves its title well and does the job of luring you in. Intelligent, intriguing lyrics and lilting melodies abound, whether amidst the pulsing rhythms of "Into the Fire" and "Back Door Man" or the quietly profound stories of "Home" and "Shelter." Although pretty much all of the tunes will grab you at one point or another, "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "I Will Not Forget You" are especially memorable, the latter not to be confused with McLachlan's "I Will Remember You," which appears on the 1995 soundtrack for The Brothers McMullen. Solace is a wonderful record that offers a glimpse of the astounding talent of a young Sarah McLachlan.