Sarah McLachlan- Shine On (Album Review)

[rating=6.00]

Considering that the latest album by Sarah McLachlan, the queen of the mournful piano ballad, is largely inspired by personal tragedy, one might expect an unrelenting deluge of misery. Luckily, that is not the case, as McLachlan includes enough hopeful moments to break through the pain. Shine On is McLachlan’s eighth studio album and first with Verve Records after a 22-year history with Nettwerk. The new release is dedicated to McLachlan’s father, who passed away in 2010, with a few songs dealing directly with his death while the album as a whole is preoccupied with how to cope with pain and loss.

Shine On is front-loaded with its most upbeat and optimistic songs, seemingly in a concerted effort to not be weighed down by the darkness. “In Your Shoes,” with its uplifting truncated strings, finds McLachlan singing about moving on and carving her own path. “Monsters” jangles and kicks as McLachlan delves into the benefits of enduring a failed relationship.

It is the forlorn ballad, of course, where she is at her best. No one’s voice better personifies heartache than Sarah McLachlan’s. It’s what made her famous, made her music the go-to for all sad moments in TV soundtracks, and also what made her a bit of a punchline. Four tracks in, Shine On settles into a familiar Sarah McLachlan-like mood — the slow, painful beauty interrupted only occasionally with lighter fare. “You were the star by which I light my way/ so how do I find my way now?” she laments on “Surrender and Certainty,” a slow dirge as pain-infused as any in McLachlan’s catalog. Amid the light finger picking of “Song for my Father,” McLachlan praises her late father’s “constant unwavering heart” and speaks of how he always helped her through difficult times, being “the place that I could always rest my head.”

“Love Beside Me” grants a temporary reprieve from the melancholia. A funky keyboard riff and bouncing groove breaks through the fog, McLachlan’s voice inspired as she sings about learning from past mistakes. After two more ballads, Shine On ends with its warmest track, “The Sound That Love Makes.” Following several songs dealing with death, broken relationships and grieving comes un unabashedly happy love song. Breezy ukulele replaces solemn piano arpeggios. It seems that love is the one positive emotion powerful enough to break through the grieving process and provide a glimmer of hope. “I’m seeing the sun in all the greyest skies,” McLachlan sings at her most optimistic.