Two Words, One Answer.
Sarah Mclachlan
 Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan $9.99 While she is not what one would call a highly influential singer or songwriter, Sarah McLachlin's primary contribution to the extension of musical culture is being the founder of Lilith Fair, the groundbreaking all-female musical extravaganza during the Lollapalooza festival era. Her music, an earthy/spacial mixture of new age emotions and feminine pop smarts, dovetailed nicely with many of the Lilith gang, like Paula Cole, Sinad O'Connor or Natalie Merchant. Which makes Sarah's "Closer" a tidy wrap-up of the career she's built on that identity and her style of singing/songwriting. The singles are all here, like "Building A Mystery," "Sweet Surrender" and the moving "Angel." Most of the songs come from Sarah's middle period, comprising of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing, when she moved more towards piano based pop that found her in a calmer, thoughtful place. (Compared to the younger track, "Vox" from Touch, which seems like it wanted to be a Eurythmics song.) Once she found this groove, Sarah worked it like few others could. Her producer and working partner, Pierre Marchand, have taken these records into the earthy/atmospheric territory folks like Daniel Lanois or Brian Eno first pioneered. It makes the seven tracks from that period (eight if you count the live version of "I Will Remember You") the best on "Closer." The three from Afterglow begin showing signs of overproduction, while two new songs round out the CD. Of those two, the most telling is "U Want Me 2." It falls back to a stripped down pop base, yet keeps the earthy atmosphere of her best work. "Don't Give Up On Us" sounds like it could have come from any of her albums' outtakes and offers nothing new. For fans who haven't owned any of Sarah's other albums, "Closer" does a nice wrap-up.  Fumbling Towards Ecstasy $8.99 I always shop Amazon for good deals in used and new cd's and dvd's. This time was no exception. Incredible price for an album that is not very common. I bought mine to replace my original copy. I love my cd's to be in its original case and this seller really live up to it's promises. Thanks! |
|
