CD - Sarah McLachlan - Rarities, B-Sides And Other Stuff Vol 2
The thing I love about Sarah McLachlan – she has a voice that can strip all of your tension away, a voice that makes you realise how truly powerful music can be. The thing I hate about Sarah McLachlan – she only records new material every five or six years! While it sure makes you appreciate each new album, it’s also a very long wait in between drinks for a hardcore fan.
As a result, her record company has become very good at releasing her live versions, dance remixes and concerts to keep the money rolling in between her studio releases. Rarities, B-Sides And Other Stuff Vol 2 is one of these, which will keep her fans happy until her Greatest Hits album is released in October this year.
A mixture of unreleased material, covers and duets, the album suffers from its varied sources in that the songs don’t always flow or sit well together. Written by Dave Stewart, the first single Ordinary Miracle is just gorgeous and is reminiscent of classic Sarah with its easy arrangement and syrupy vocals. Joni Mitchell’s River, is really beautiful and grabbed me at first listen, as did When She Loved Me from the Toy Story 2 soundtrack.
The Beatles’ cover Blackbird is nice enough, but not very different from the original but a live duet of Time After Time with Cyndi Lauper hits all the right buttons as their voices blend together so well, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect match. Unchained Melody is slower and more sombre than the original but still a nice listen and The Rainbow Connection suits Sarah’s voice perfectly and takes you back in time to when you were a kid. Another live duet, Angel with Emmylou Harris also brings a nice change with Emmylou’s vocals giving this beautiful song a nice re-invention. An acapella collaboration with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Homeless, breaks up the album and has Sarah expanding her repertoire with some African chanting and shows how effective it can be when the only instrument used is the voice.
The two songs I wasn’t so crash hot on for this album were Just Like Me – a hip-hop collaboration with DMC and DJ Tiesto’s In Search of Sunrise remix of Silence. The original of Just Like Me appears on her Bloom Remix album and samples Cats In The Cradle and while I can appreciate an artist stepping away from their usual fare, I don’t think it worked in this case. And although I love the song and it goes well in the middle of a packed dance floor, Silence doesn’t belong on this album and isn’t a good way to finish 50 mins of Sarah’s soothing vocals.
On their own, many of these songs are really lovely and remind you of how truly talented a singer and songwriter Sarah McLachlan is. As an entire package though, it’s a bit hit and miss and is obviously an attempt to bide the time before her next proper release.
Sarah McLachlan – Rarities, B-Sides And Other Stuff. Vol 2 is out now through EMI Music.
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DavidL
said on the 8th Aug, 2008