What the hell does Sarah McLachlan do with her time? She’s in the 21st year of her recording career and she’s released only five albums of original material. I appreciate the idea of not churning out product just for the sake of staying on the charts, but doesn’t she owe her fans a bit more than that?
This is particularly galling because I know what McLachlan is capable of when she’s inspired. 1993’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is one of the finest albums I’ve ever heard, and 1997’s Surfacing is almost its equal. She has written and performed a dozen songs I consider perfect.
2003’s Afterglow, her last album of original material (she released a covers album in ’06), was a bit of a disappointment. It’s a fine album, but as a follow-up to Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing it came up a bit short.
Still, I’d take another Afterglow in a heartbeat, and I’d salivate over an album approaching the quality of the other two. So what do you say, Sarah? Throw me a bone.
‘Sweet Surrender,’ the second single from Surfacing, is a true gem. It’s a song about completely giving yourself to someone (a lover? a deity?) when you’ve reached a point where that’s the only option you have left.
it doesn’t mean anything at all
The life I’ve left behind me is a cold room
I’ve crossed the last line
From where I can’t return
Where every step I took in faith betrayed me
And led me from my home
Sweet surrender is all that I have to give
You take me in, no questions asked
You strip away the ugliness that surrounds me
Are you an angel?
Am I already that gone?
I only hope that I won’t disappoint you
When I’m down here on my knees
Sweet surrender is all that I have to give
And I don’t understand
by the touch of your hand
I would be the one to fall
I miss the little things
I miss everything about you
It doesn’t mean much
It doesn’t mean anything at all
The life I left behind me is a cold room
Sweet surrender is all that I have to give
Meet Me In Montauk 
Your children? I immediately thought to myself when I started reading your whiny, when will she give me another album, diatribe ;), “hey, buddy, isn’t she a MOM now?”
Sure enough, I found this quote within two seconds of searching…
“motherhood has forced Sarah McLachlan to alter her approach to making music. Mom to India Ann Sushil, 6, and Taja Summer, 15 months, Sarah “used to go off to some cabin in the woods” by herself for six months where she would “write constantly.” Those days are long gone, however! Now Sarah, 40, considers herself “lucky to get an hour a day when the kids are in bed.”
“In the past, I was traumatized when it didn’t come. Parenting has calmed me down to the point that now I just shrug and say, ‘It’ll come.’”
So, pipe down. It’ll come; it’ll come. Or it won’t. She’s got other concerns these days. Consider yourself lucky she gave you two of your favorite albums of all time. Sheesh, men are so demanding! 🙂
She can’t blame her slow output over the previous 15 years on those little rugrats.
5 albums in 15 years seems to be an appropriate output. How fast is the muse supposed to strike, for crying out loud? It seems an artist who has 2 or 3 great albums should be able to consider his career path justified. Five? That’s downright respectable. Now go play Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and give Sarah a break!
I have to side with Amy on this one. An album every 4-5 years isn’t that bad. Very few pump out albums at a rate of every 1-2 years. Those who do are either (a) single (b) married (perhaps not so happily) without children (c) so damn prolific that the music pours out of them like oil from a well or (d) some combination of the above..
I demand an album every other year or a written apology.