Sarah McLachlan
Mirrorball: The Complete Concert
Arista/Legacy
By David Chiu
Sarah McLachlan’s 1998 live album, Mirrorball, was released at the height of the Canadian singer/songwriter’s popularity and the Lilith Fair, the music festival she spearheaded. Having previously released four albums, Mirrorball was essentially a live greatest hits album, drawing heavily from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing (The performances are so perfect that Mirrorball can pass as a studio album in itself). Having seen McLachlan live a couple of times during this period, I knew she has done a few more songs in concert than the 14 that originally appeared on this recorded set, including the upbeat gem “Vox.” Fortunately that song and nine others are tacked on to this new version of Mirrorball, which weren’t exactly hits but equally worthy in their own right: “Elsewhere,” the lovely “I Will Not Forget You,” the driving “Into the Fire,” the heavenly “Witness,” etc. They augment the more popular songs such as “Possession,” “Angel” and “I Will Remember You.” For those faithful fans who felt short-changed by the amount of songs on Mirrorball’s initial album release (unless they purchased the DVD) will be finally rewarded with this complete concert issue.
NewBeats 