CD Odyssey Disc 703: Sarah McLachlan

I was feeling a bit listless when I got home, further fuelled by watching yet another Boston Bruins loss before writing this review.

Fortunately, my Amazon order arrived! I don’t use Amazon as a rule, preferring the local record store hunt, but after I give it a good effort (at least a year) then I’ll break down and order music online. So look for reviews for the following seven albums (on 5 CDs) in coming months and years:

• Eric B . & Rakim – “Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em”
• Budgie – “Impeckable”
• Olympic Runners – “Put the Music Where Your Mouth Is” and “Out in Front”
• Nick Gilder – “City Nights” and “Frequency”
• Bonnie Tyler – “Faster than the Speed of Night”

Yes, those last two artists are guilty pleasures. I regret nothing.

Disc 703 is…. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

Artist: Sarah McLachlan

Year of Release: 1993

What’s up with the Cover? Sarah, getting all heartfelt and emotive. You can tell because she has her hand placed artfully over her breast. Then again, she could just be having a heart attack. That theory goes better with the pained expression on her face.

How I Came To Know It: I was a Sarah McLachlan fan from her previous album, “Solace” (reviewed way back at Disc 249). So when this album came out, I just bought it on spec.

How It Stacks Up:  We have five Sarah McLachlan albums. “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” is pretty much in a dead heat with “Surfacing” for second. However, since I believe in taking a stand on such matters I’ll put “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” slightly out in front, but still second to “Solace.”

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

On “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” Sarah McLachlan finally achieved the blend of sounds I think she was looking for on previous efforts; an ambient combination of folk, pop, jazz and just a hint of soul. As a side benefit, it also put her on the pop music map – at least in Canada (the United States wouldn’t catch on until 1997’s “Surfacing”).

There is a sacrifice in combining so many different sounds, and the record doesn’t have the same stark and desolate power that “Solace” manages. That said it is plenty stark and desolate.

This is fuelled in part by McLachlan’s haunting voice. She sounds like an opera singer who is asleep and dreaming of being a folk singer. The power and precision is there, but the words spill out in big breathy phrases, like someone talking in their sleep. I love the effect of it all, and McLachlan knows how to infuse a melancholia that makes you feel like you’re hearing the songs float across to you in the night.

On “Elsewhere” where McLachlan sings “reaching out/reaching in” it feels like the breath of a dream, pulling you in to a land where you’re no longer certain of your bearings, or whether you even want to be.

“The opening track, “Possession” wades with you into “a sea of waking dreams”, which may not be the most original lyric, but works in the context of the song. What also works is the insistent neediness of the song. Here and throughout the album we are warned that while love can inspire, it can also drive us to the brink of madness.

In recent years it has become strangely popular to hate on Sarah McLachlan. For some, what seemed powerfully emotional then reflects back across the years as overwrought. I don’t see it that way; I think this album is well crafted, and the emotional core of it has held up strong.

This is despite some questionable percussion decisions here and there. “Circle” has a very annoying drum machine beat and on more than one occasion I swear I heard unwelcome bongos. Hippy buskers take note; bongos are rarely welcome.

There are also jazz elements in the songs, trying to resolve the melodies in creative ways that sometimes take their sweet time doing so. I’m not a fan of jazz, but the use of it is well timed and restrained on the record. I have to reluctantly admit that they make the songs better.

This album has a couple of Creative Maelstrom pet peeves. The song lyrics are included in the liner notes but they are presented in ‘messy handwriting’ font. If you’re including the lyrics, then you presumably want me to read them. Please make it easy to do so. It is a very nineties art design decision, and it has not aged well.

Also, the final track is actually two tracks, the second of which is a hidden “piano only” version of “Possession.” I really like having the alternate version, but I’d prefer it as its own track. The surprise of the bonus track on the first listen quickly wears off and leaves me wishing it stood on its own.

The song the piano “Possession” is paired with (possessed by?) is the title track, which would have benefited from the same stripped down production. It has some weird Sade-like beats that take away from the simple and poignant beauty of Sarah laying herself bare with a chorus of “if I shed a tear I won’t cage it/I won’t fear love.”

Part of me would like to hear all the songs produced more simply, but if you took all the organ and guitar and backbeat out of these songs you’d risk also stripping out their energy.

For an album with such a dreamlike and diffuse quality, the energy on “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” is exceptional. If there is an occasional stumble, it is always a graceful one; soon resolved into part of the overall dance.

Best tracks: Possession, Good Enough, Mary, Elsewhere, Hold On