It has been 25 years since Sarah McLachlan debuted with her first album, Touch. It wasn’t long before she became a stable artist in the 90s alternative rock scene with a haunting voice and piano melodies that won her many fans. As one of the few female rock musicians, she accidently became a symbol for women in music. She embraced it.
A five-year break leading into the 21st century allowed her to fade from the spotlight. With Afterglow, Laws of Illusion and now her seventh album, , she has continued to create unique melodies and use her extensive vocal range to tell emotional stories that connect to the everyday and the existential.
McLachlan has a gift for the illusory. The lyrics to “Broken Heart†could apply to romance or to making either simple or complicated decisions: “We trip and fall and stand again/And go on with our heads held high/We laugh and love as best we can/Trying to hold on to the wonder/How long? How long?/I should be thinking with my head/and not with my broken heart.â€
On “Song for My Father,†she articulates the grief of losing her father: “How I wish that I could tell you/It’s to you that I would run/You were the place that I could always rest my head/When my world had come undone.â€
These songs beg the listener to reflect on their own story, to feel the joy and sorrow that make up life in a fallen world. (Verve)