Sarah McLachlan: Mirrorball : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In 1995, sometime folkie and fellow Canadian Neil Young released an album also titled Mirror Ball; Sarah McLachlan's version could use some of Young's sharpness. Even when she sings of vampires and voodoo, McLachlan's candlelit aesthetic renders everything toothless on this live foray. Beginning with the admittedly pretty "Building a Mystery" through "Adia," Mirrorball's first half-dozen songs sound stultifyingly the same. Hanging tough to track nine ("Fear") yields some interesting experimental jaunts into Seal-like landscapes of shimmering synths and ominous echoes, but without the chops of a backup group like Wendy and Lisa, it's unconvincing. On the Lilith Fair discs, McLachlan is tempered by some real rockers and braver artists: Emmylou Harris, Me'Shell NdegTocello, Indigo Girls, N'Dea Davenport and the truly regal Bonnie Raitt. Still, there's some filler (Sixpence None the Richer's "Kiss Me") and downright travesty (Lisa Loeb's "I Do"). The sum of these three discs reveals that the Fair may have run its course.