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

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.