Sarah McLachlan: Classic, Dud, Search, Destroy, Tastes Great, Less Filling, etc...

'Surfacing' disappointed me on release; she'd sandblasted all the edges off for QMFM glory, and I lost a lot of respect when she spent the next 6 years milking it for all it was worth. Sure, she earned some time in the spotlight, but it was a weak, bland album with very little to recommend it aside from a predetermined arc of stratospheric success. Add that by '98 she was absolutely ubiquitous in Vancouver, and there are the makings of a not undeserved grudge. Her '03 comeback album kinda flopped, and by all reports it was dull and tired.

So, classic for two great albums, but dud since Lilith Fair took off, and she seemingly stopped taking chances.

what did she cover?

"Dear God." Takes the power out of it. Her "Solsbury Hill" isn't terrible, though.

I interviewed Sarah for college radio way back when . . . well, when she was touring for Fumbling. I got about half an hour with her just before a show at the Cleveland Agora. Despite her public persona, she didn't actually have an ounce of pretension or piety about her. She was super-chatty and humble.

Anyhoo, I actually liked Surfacing in a great many spots -- production and repetition aside, "Adia" has a beautiful melody, and "Sweet Surrender" would have been a #1 from any other female artist, perhaps.

The latest album, not a lot of bright spots. Feels like treading water. "Train Wreck" is good.

Explain how she is the musical equivalent of Atwood, please... aside from 'token successful Canadian women', is there a connection?

Lifted from an actual Interview....

Interviewer: "If you could be one of the Spice Girls, who would you be?"
Sarah McLachlan: "Smelly Spice. I fart alot."

...and to think I always admired her for her dignity.

similar fanbases, mostly. i think i was drunk when i wrote that.

A Christmas revive for this exquisite version of "River":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB2dlEH9U0E

Her version of Randy Newman's "When She Loved Me" off Toy Story 2 chokes me up every flippin' time.

Absolutely. That song is genius because it ties in perfectly with the plot of the film but it also has a life of its own for those who haven't seen it. I've never been able to look at one of my son's discarded toys in quite the same way after seeing that sequence.

I've never heard that one, but Angel fucks me up these days when I hear it.

Still think Fumbling is amazing, this underrated tune in particular, though the lyrics to the first verse remind me intensely of the kind of thing I used to write when I was 14.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I815NVkQPq4

So gorgeously produced! Kinda post-Buckingham.

Is it just me or are most of his songs incredibly depressing? I remember hearing Surfacing and Fumbling a lot 10 years ago or so and lately I've been revisiting some of her songs and find that there's a strong fixation on suicide and addictions on her lyrics.

No it's not just you, they really are quite depressing.

Its even more depressing when you realize that he is really a she!

lol sorry about that. I tend to exchange he/she when expressing myself in english.

Search "Fumbling" title track, still her finest moment if a bit Gabriel/Bush.

"Surrender", "Possession", "Building a Mystery" are all great but sort of Hornsby/Henley mid-tempo video rock, twirling in the curtains slo-mo...In the same league as "Round of Blues".

Destroy "Adia".

"Solace" and "Fumbling" are great throughout
Weirded out that she has one song called "I Will Not Forget You" and another called "I Will Remember You"
I used to skip "Adia" even when I was a big fan

My favourites off Fumbling are "Wait" and "Ice" - those are awesome pseudo-goth.

Also adore "Full of Grace" (from the next one) in the context of the final moments of Buffy season 2.

I was about to point out Full of Grace. ♥

i was listening to "fear" today and suddenly thought that fumbling towards ecstasy should prob get more comparisons to hounds of love

that's exactly how I felt about it when it came out; but it hasn't held for me.

There's a great cover of Joni's Blue as some sort of extra track on my copy of Fumbling

Suzanne Vega with balls
Suzanne Vega with balls
Suzanne Vega with balls
Suzanne Vega with balls
Suzanne Vega with balls
Suzanne Vega with balls
Suzanne Vega with balls

i was listening to "fear" today and suddenly thought that fumbling towards ecstasy should prob get more comparisons to hounds of love

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 15:06 (8 hours ago) Permalink

I see this, but at the same time Fumbling Towards Ecstasy sounds like it's striving in the opposite direction from mid-80s Kate, as if it wants to hide its mastery and creativity; "Wait" (which always struck me as the album's ~archetypal~ track) is so gorgeously textured but it's like weathered limestone rather than rococo magnificence.

It's a very difficult record to place IMO, though it occurred to me yesterday that at times it has similar sonic predilections to Jane Siberry's When I Was A Boy, which came out the same year - or, at least, the most songful, least abstracted parts of that album (e.g. "Sail Across The Water").

Maybe it's a Canadian thing.

Also I always thought it was kind of (intentionally? unintentionally?) amusing that "Fear" is followed by the title track, the first line of which is "All the fear has left me now..."

Perhaps another precedent for this album is Night Ride Home!

When i Was A Boy is much more embracing of weirdness though. I really love that record, maybe the only record by her that I do love.

Yeah WIWAB is much more deliberately unsettling and off-kilter in parts.

I think The Walking is Jane's best overall though.

I bet Sarah and her producer listened closely to Peter Gabriel's Us, also.

The Daniel Lanois production thing, rootsiness + Michael Brook style ambient guitar and widescreen mix touches.

absolutely; and in fact her first album was much more in that vein. also I think she covered Solsbury Hill on a b-side around this time? At any rate, I wish she'd done more like this instead of slipping into the easy listening mode that she went into.

This thread made me relisten to Fumbling and Siberry's When I Was A Boy for the first time in many years, thank you! I love both of these.

wow a bunch of good posts in a row from last year

i'm listening to the complete mirrorball and it's lovely tbh, i love the production on fumbling and solace but it's nice to hear the songs escape that space. i also heard the freedom sessions for the first time yesterday which has a similar effect, the jazzy arrangement of "elsewhere" is wild

I bet Sarah and her producer listened closely to Peter Gabriel's Us, also.

― Tim F, Wednesday, June 29, 2016 11:25 PM (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this feels very otm and makes me wanna listen to us immediately

i know the popular narrative is that surfacing is a less satisfying xerox of fumbling but i really love every song on that record at this point

even "adia" which has somehow, twenty years after i got so so sick of it playing on the radio constantly, regained its emotional efficacy

i may just be hearing things but currently my favorite part of mirrorball are the audience members who begin to recognize "fear" after the first line and briefly whoop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7RJZ53geyI

damn

i haven't heard enough of her to judge but i generally like her music and her starting Lilith Fair in the middle of the post-grunge bro heavy alt-rock era was vv important imo, and it (in name) becoming derisive shorthand for a certain type of music was a vv MRA-type reaction.

Heard Sweet Surrender on the radio a couple days ago. I love the electric guitar effect intro (what is that? Is it just pedal work?) favorite element in the song and it's unfortunately just there in the opening verse.

Apparently it's feedback?

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/134227-guitar-sweet-surrender-sarah-mclachlan.html

Doesn't quite explain how the guitar gets the effect live but it's a great sound. I'm can't think of any examples that does it the way this track does it. Really wish they had carried on with the effect throughout the song and finished it with a shoegazey albeit MOR wall of distorsion.

I did always like that effect. Song is kind of boring otherwise, though. Iirc, there was one kind of cool noisy/shoegazey track on Freedom Sessions. (I had to listen to a LOT of this woman in the late 90s without ever putting it on myself.)

This one, I think. Not exactly shoegaze but a lot more distortion than she usually goes for.

Ah that's a nice version! Although makes me realize that Sarah Mclachlan with a heavier band sounds like Evanescence!

Sweet Surrender is definitely boring safe for that 20 second + guitar effect.

In the mirrorball and SNL performance the effect is there and it sounds different from that on the album but it doesn't seem like the guitar is playing anything. Is it playback? It seems to be pre-recorded

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sc7_lwRVvw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WuK0zW0SHCs

She does a fine guest vocal on this one with Blue Rodeo. Works perfectly for the song.
https://youtu.be/qIaPGLGdlVQ

i think in all live performances the "sweet surrender" feedback is pre-recorded. one of the things i love about her band in this period (which, maybe she has the same band now idk) is that the guitarist loooooves playing noisy feedback solos

he spends most of the verses on the mirrorball performance just leaning into his monitors lol

has anyone heard laws of illusion? it's....magnificent??? it sounds like an aimee mann record

Is it even possible to do that feedback intro live? Seems like it was cut and pasted from different sounds in the studio.

sarah mclachlan is great and IMO a couple years off from an actual reappraisal -- a lot of recent the xx, Lana Del Rey, even Lorde (the beginning of "Sober" fakes you out into thinking it's going to sound like "Fear") has her stuff in its DNA

also, her dance appearances (both Delerium-type stuff, and remixes of her own work) are fantastic, there are times I wish everything sounded like that

Brad’s review of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy for Pitchfork is so great!

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sarah-mclachlan-fumbling-towards-ecstasy/

that review inspired me to pull out an old copy of this album, which has indie radio station notes taped to the front. "this album is AWESOME" is one key note, which is otm. re-listening now I'm getting the Talk Talk vibes more.

Yeah I’d long thought there was a Talk Talk vibe but I’d had no idea Sarah was actually a big fan of Spirit of Eden.

great review Brad

late sleeper on sarah, where do i start

fumbling then solace then surfacing then the others if you want more

disagree

surfacing first, then fumbling, then touch and solace

essential non-album cuts include the immortal "i will remember you" from the brothers mcmullen soundtrack, which is possibly her finest song. other ones to look out for include the electric version of ice and the tom waits cover from the freedom sessions and the delerium collaboration "silence"

while listening to surfacing you may be interested to know that the album was referred to in the starr report in the context of an note monica lewinsky wrote to bill clinton after he had a copy in his office. she said the song "do what you have to do" really reminded her of him.

surfacing is the only one i've heard, and i love that one

know some of her other tracks (like Silence and Fear). Thanks for the recs

Second "Silence." But Fumbling remains my favorite -- "Elsewhere" is so good.

i mean my reasoning behind recommending solace second is that after you hear fumbling you gotta hear "path of thorns"

these days I'd actually recommend people start with her dance remixes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cR7AORkMU

I don't think there's much reason not to admit that Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is far and away her greatest record; though the ones before and after are also great, they feel like a practice run and a slight comedown respectively. Everything just snaps into focus almost without any flaws on FTE.

hoo boy that is great xp

yes fumbling is a great classic album. none of the others quite measure up.

To be clear I do think that Surfacing in particular is an excellent and very interesting record in its own right (see my discussion of it w/r/t "Lost in California" in my 2017 round-up thread).

i genuinely prefer surfacing to fumbling

it's tighter, darker, more stylish, more atmospheric, more distinctive

i've never felt otherwise

I’d say at best some of those are a draw and otherwise (darker, more atmospheric, more distinctive) those qualities are stronger on fumbling.

But then the darker songs on fumbling (in particular Wait, Plenty, Elsewhere, Ice, Fear) are basically my favourite of hers, so...

In dearness to Surfacing there is more distinction between the songs, though equally you could chalk that up to Fumbling mostly seeking to establish a sustained mood.

Meanwhile, talking about Sarah always makes me want to know whether people have listened to the first Jonatha Brooke album.

I have a few Jonatha Brooke records, my favourite is 'Back in the Circus' (the European version) tho' the first is great too, particularly 'Inconsolable' aka 'The Saddest Song Ever Written' (well, one of!).

I do like Surfacing, but obviously the ubiquity of some songs makes overcoming them a little harder. That said, "Building a Mystery" is one of her best melodies outside of FTE.

when i was a teenager i bought surfacing from a video game/used CD shop. this track was always my fav

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b57Ie6L9oy844\

i grew up with muchmusic playing her singles but never gave her the proper due, thank you all itt i will go further

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9PGl5RjXHA

Possession always kills me, i think there's a sense via the performance that there's something gauzier about the song but there is a real nightmare at the heart of it.

Into this night I wander,
It's morning that I dread,
Another day of knowing of
The path I fear to tread,
Oh, into the sea of waking dreams
I follow without pride,
Nothing stands between us here
And I won't be denied

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd, wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes dear

the song is heard so frequently that it's probably underrated as a horror story.

the story of how that song was written and then the consequences are even scarier to me

Surfacing is a good album but one of the unintended consequences of its success was to obscure just how dark about two thirds of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was.

I only listened 'Fumbling Towards Ecstasy' two years ago and it was such a blessing.