Sarah McLachlan kicked off Random Weekends 19 months (and 597 songs) ago, but she hasn’t shown up since until today. Fountains of Wayne don’t know how good they’ve got it.
This is actually the tenth Sarah McLachlan song to make the blog, though, which is more than I would have guessed for an artist who left my good graces two albums, and ten years, ago.
I’m not a big concertgoer… it costs too much money and the venues around me rarely do justice to the performers. But through the magic of YouTube, I can watch live performances by my favorite artists from the comfort of my den. I realize it’s not the same thing, but it’s the same principal that makes me far happier to watch a Miami Dolphins game on my HD TV than from a hot seat in the stadium.
This week I’ll feature live performances of a handful of songs by a random sampling of artists. I’m sure I would have enjoyed being in the audience for every one of them, but I’m enjoying them just the same right here. I hope you do as well.
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.
I wrote yesterday about the use of songs in movies and TV shows, and today’s song is a splendid example. Though I bought Sarah McLachlan’s Surfacing album when it first came out and knew it pretty well, I will always associate ‘Full of Grace’ with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The Buffy fans out there already know what I’m talking about. At the end of Season Two (possibly the best season of television’s best show) Buffy is forced to kill Angel, the vampire she loves. She then boards a bus and leaves Sunnydale without saying a word to her friends or mother, and this is the song that plays over the final montage.
Meet Me In Montauk 