Sarah McLachlan Surfacing released

Surfacing Sarah McLachlan

Released: July 15, 1997 Peak: 2 US, 47 UK, 11 CN, 37 AU, 13 DF Sales (in millions): 8.0 US, 0.1 UK, 16.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: adult alternative

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Building a Mystery (7/5/97, 13 BB, 12 RR, 28 AC, 4 A40, 1 AA, 3 MR, 1 CN, 97 AU, 13 DF) I Love You Sweet Surrender (11/1/97, 28 BB, 18 RR, 27 AC, 10 A40, 2 AA, 14 MR, 2 CN, 32 DF) Adia (3/27/98, 3 BB, 16 RR, 5 AC, 6 A40, 7 AA, 18 UK, 3 CN, 55 AU, 15 DF) Do What You Have to Do (29 DF) Witness Angel (10/24/98, 4 BB, 2 BA, 3 RR, 1 AC, 1 A40, 8 AA, 36 UK, 9 CN, 55 AU, 12 DF) Black & White Full of Grace Last Dance Total Running Time: 41:14

Rating: 3.687 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About Sarah McLachlan Sarah McLachlan was born in 1968 in Nova Scotia, Canada. She started music at an early age, playing the ukulele when she was four and later studying classical guitar, classical piano, and voice at the Maritime Conservatory of Music. She fronted the band October Game while still in high school. After their first concert McLachlan was offeed a recording contract with Nettwerk, a Vancouver-based independent record label. WK She wouldn’t sign with them until two years later after finishing high school and a year of school at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design at the insistence of her parents. WK She released her first album, Touch, in 1988. It peaked at #132 on the Billboard album chart and eventually went gold. Her follow-up album, 1991’s Solace, would also achieve gold status in the United States and again dent the lower regions of the Billboard album chart (#167). Three singles charted in her native Canada where the album reached #20 and sold 200,000 copies. Then came Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. It saw McLachlan reach the Billboard Hot 100 in America for the first time. While the album only peaked at #50, it would go on to sell three million copies. From Fumbling to Surfacing McLachlan built the success of Fumbling – and paved the way for the leap forward of Surfacing – through two and a half years of touring. WK She finally finished touring in January 1996. The plan was to start working on the follow-up that April, but McLachlan was exhausted. She even said she wanted Fumbling to be her last record. WK At management’s suggestion, she went home to Vancouver and took six months off. WK Lilith Fair Surfacing “was released as the first Lilith Fair tour hit the road, and Sarah McLachlan benefited enormously from the timing. As the organizer of Lilith Fair, McLachlan was on the cover of magazines across America and Canada, which helped Surfacing debut at number two on the U.S. charts.” AM The album sold sixteen million copies worldwide and won the Juno Award for Album of the Year. A Great Leap Forward Commercially…But Critically? “Before this mega-success, it was possible to dismiss Sarah McLachlan as another Enya-influenced peddler of vague mystic allegories. Surfacing changed that. It established the Canadian singer and songwriter as a master of the moody confessional and the soft-focus ethereal atmosphere who knew to put enough backbeat in her tunes to get them on the radio.” TM “Production (by McLachlan and Pierre Marchand) is central to the appeal of Surfacing – a case can be made for this album as one of the most sonically alluring works of the 1990s.” TM Each song “comes with its own thick and carefully cultivated aura designed to enhance the specific shades of melancholy McLachlan seeks. The surroundings are shrouded in mist while the theme are needle-direct – a contrast that welcomes you into this calm place of refugee again and again, and shows you something different each time you visit.” TM Overall, though, the album “doesn’t offer anything new, and the songs aren’t as consistently captivating as they were on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.” AM “McLachlan proffers fervent U2-style anthems, lilting piano ballads and methodical medium-tempo rockers that move with the steadiness of ticking clocks.” TM “That suggests that even though McLachlan was at the height of her popularity, she may have begun to run out of ideas.” AM The Songs Here are insights about individual songs. “Building a Mystery” “There are several fine songs on the album, including the single Building a Mystery.” AM “It might take a couple of spins to pick up on the derision in …her sketch of a lost soul caught up in New Age quackery.” TM The song won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. “Angel” This was the first song written for the album. McLachlan said that writing it was “a joyous occasion.” WK It was inspired by articles she read in Rolling Stone about musicians who used heroin to escape music industry pressure and overdosed. WK As she said, even though she’d never done heroin, “I’ve been in that place where…you’re so lost that you don’t know who you are anymore and you’re miserable.” Author Tom Moon attacked that song, saying, “She sings with no affectation and very little inflection, and her detachment forces the melodies, like the almost-too-common weeping line of Angel to stand on their own.” TM “Adia” When she reaches the chorus of Adia, McLachlan’s controlled demeanor makes the brave and stately theme, which carries a thought about lost innocence, more devastating.” TM Both songs were top-5 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. “Sweet Surrender” and “Witness” Sia Michel of The New York Times said that “while the album paints a ‘vivid emotional landscape,’ it is at odds with McLachlan’s statement that the album was about ‘facing ugly things about herself;’ not revealing anything particularly dark. Michel also noted certain old-fashioned ideas in the album, particularly in Sweet Surrender.” WK “She cited Witness as the highlight and said of the album, “Perhaps she hasn’t found what she’s looking for, but at least she’s trying.” WK

Review Sources: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 490-1. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 11/14/2008; last updated 12/9/2024.