 Sarah McLachlan The strength of Surfacing is probably best indicated by the fact that I feel pretty much the same about it now as I did when it came out, despite the subsequent years of heavy, heavy rotation on VH1, every adult-targeted radio station around, TV shows, and changing rooms. Lots of critics like to dismiss Sarah McLachlan as a cut-rate Joni Mitchell for the "Felicity" crowd (is there such a thing? As usual I am writing purely for effect). Personally, I think she¹s as good as Joni any day, and while the elitist in me is slightly pained to be so drawn in by such "obvious" music, the part of me that just loves what I love, loves this album. I feed my head with lots of "cool" music, but I feed my heart with stuff like Surfacing. Beautiful melodies, deep and slightly depressing lyrics, and Sarah's wonder of a voice. It¹s a bit beside the point to review this as music, since for devotees it is much more than merely that. Which won't stop me from devoting hundreds of words to it anyway. This album was released in '97, and I love it now as then, although I don¹t listen to it much anymore. "Building a Mystery," track 1, is probably the weakest song on the disc, and was a huge single. Even at the time I thought it was not the best choice for a single, though obviously it did what it was intended to do, which was make a giganto-star out of Sarah. "I Love You" is my favorite, a song so pristine and gorgeous it could make me cry if my tear ducts had not been permanently damaged playing with my father's tear-gas canisters. That was great fun until me and my brothers were blinded. At least I still have some perception of shadows, so I can appreciate certain aspects of everyday visual life without becoming overly embittered. Still, I enjoy blotting out the pain with alcohol. Um, yes. "I Love You" is that good. Like most of the tracks on this disc, it¹s a slow one, and features a vocal that emerges right out of the ether. Just a spellbinding song, purely wonderful. "Sweet Surrender" is a work of pure genius, one of the best pop singles of the 90s. I still listen to it even having heard it bajillions of times. "Adia" is a great ballad with some cool chord changes, sort of like a better version of "Building a Mystery." "Do What You Have to Do" features the warm piano sound and spare arrangement that characterizes most of the really soft songs on the album, similar to "Angel" and the wonderful, precious "Full of Grace." "Witness" and "Black and White" are the clear "album tracks," though they¹re very good songs. I probably wouldn¹t have been able to name "Black and White" is someone had tested me on the track listing prior to doing this review, but listening, it¹s a good one, lesser than the high points here, but that goes without saying. "Last Dance" is a great closer with piano, cello, and singing saw, really nice. Tremendously pretty, like the whole album. Most people seem to prefer Fumbling Toward Ecstasy as Sarah¹s masterpiece, but I think this one is more emotionally direct, better produced, and song-for-song, just a much better album. Plus, she's refrained from adding a million overdubbed tracks of her own voice on every song. The CD has an enhanced portion which is a decent time-killer once, but it's nothing important. Limited editions also included a bonus disc with two tracks, a "jazz version" of "Sweet Surrender," and "Prayer of St. Francis." The former is not nearly jazz, but it's a fine acoustic version of the song, and the latter is a pleasant but kind of stereotypical Sarah outtake. This version is probably hard to find at this point, but the two tracks are undoubtedly easy to score as mp3s.
Review by John Square |