More Than Good Enough

Sarah McLachlan

by M.J. Fine

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Published: Dec 6, 2006

M.J. Fine does it again

Sarah McLachlan's never been the most prolific composer. Though she's credited with writing nearly everything on Touch, her 1989 debut, she'd been offered a contract before she'd written her first song, and it showed. She made great progress with Solace, and everything seemed to click into place for album No. 3.

Sarah McLachlan Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Arista)

Sarah McLachlan Wintersong (Arista)

1993's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy opens with the creepy but undeniably romantic "Possession," an instant classic of love and obsession, and ends with a slow, desperate piano-and-voice reprise. Fourteen months later, the fan who claimed his letters inspired the song killed himself before he had his day in court. It's not too much of a stretch to see why vulnerable listeners might overidentify with McLachlan. How many baby dykes have rehearsed coming out to their moms via "Elsewhere"? How many underappreciated wives have found solace in "Good Enough"? How many tentative relationships have been sealed through "Fear"? Fumbling drips with need, disappointment and wavering hope, but only "Ice Cream" (as in "Your love is better than...") comes off cloying. If McLachlan had stopped here and not gotten around to spearheading Lilith Fair, she still would have given voice to legions.

Her soprano is sensual. It's strong, yet ethereal. Angelic, even. But don't tell her that you could listen to her singing the phone book, because she just might take you up on it. In the 13 years since Fumbling, McLachlan has put out just two proper studio albums — plus a disc of Fumbling demos, a rarities collection, two remix records and two concert CDs. And if that weren't enough, she recently released an expanded version of 1999's live Mirrorball (restoring nine tracks that were left off the original) and a Christmas album. Face it: The lady knows how to make a lot of money with minimal effort. And why should she write more when she can milk a record for four singles in three years?

As Christmas albums go, Wintersong's not bad. The earnest title track is McLachlan's only original composition, but Joni Mitchell's "River" and John & Yoko's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" are respectable covers done well, while traditional fare like "Silent Night" and "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" are predictably pretty. If some of it's too sappy — and "The First Noel/Mary Mary" definitely is — well, 'tis the season for sap. Suck it up.

(m_fine@citypaper.net)

Not to worry, South Street shoppers; your record stores may be endangered, but you can pick up Wintersong at Starbucks or Whole Foods.

 

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