Dedicated fans of Sarah McLachlan had a lot to buy in 2008, when the Canadian songwriter issued three retrospective albums. Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff, Vol. 2 led the pack in April, followed by a deluxe edition of Fumbling Toward Ecstasy several months later. Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan brought up the rear, arriving in October and compiling McLachlan's greatest hits along with two new songs…
Although 1991's Solace made Sarah McLachlan a star in Canada, her international breakthrough arrived two years later with Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, a softly assured album that combined the atmospheric production of Pierre Marchand (a former apprentice – and evident disciple – of Daniel Lanois) with some of McLachlan's strongest songwriting to date…
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Taylor Swift are now among the industry’s most highly prized female songwriters, making McLachlan seem a bit staid and outdated by comparison.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.
The relative intimacy of the Storytellers stage is appropriate for an artist like Sarah McLachlan, who in the course of this 10-song, 55-minute performance establishes an easy and close rapport with her audience. In truth, empires will neither rise nor fall, and few lives are likely to be changed, on account of McLachlan's music…
A stronger release than Taylor's previous EP, this hook-laden record shows much in the way of maturity and growth as an artist. It's still very political, but this time leaning a bit further to the left, discussing such issues as racism in the church ("We Don't Need No Colour Code") and human rights violations worldwide ("Over My Dead Body"). The songwriting is killer overall…
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…
Bloom begins with Junkie XL's terrific remix of the Afterglow track "World on Fire." He trashes the hopeful chording of the original nearly completely, instead floating Sarah McLachlan's vocals over a taut guitar line for an addictive mixture of tension and atmosphere…
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.