track 44: elsewhere

One of the problems with remembering all of this is that sometimes the timelines get mixed up. This song rightfully belongs a few spaces up. Track 42, where it would have been between Jeff Buckley and the Indigo Girls. Because I know that I listened to Sarah McLachlan before getting the Boys on the Side soundtrack.



Discovering Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was another case of reading so many reviews that I decided to take a chance on an album. I remember having liked Sarah's song "Into the fire" from her previous album, Solace. I remember the first time I heard it, one afternoon on WVUM, I thought it was a new Sinéad O'Connor song. I had probably also heard Fumbling's big single, "Possession" at some point before buying the album. In my mind, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is a perfect album. It's also the only perfect Sarah McLachlan album. Because of course, I immediately dived into her back catalog, and as much as I love Touch and Solace, they have their flaws and can be a bit pretentious and flowery. Further on, Surfacing would suffer a bit, despite being her giant breakthrough to popular music, because anything following a perfect album will be a disappointment and Afterglow would be a bit dull.

Regardless, I was obsessed with Fumbling and with Sarah and soon my love for her and my love for the Indigo Girls would lead to big things: Discovering Joni Mitchell and introducing my friend Lisa to the music of Sarah and the Girls.

next time: i would dial the numbers just to listen to your breath