Sarah McLachlan Returns With New ‘Laws of Illusion’

Singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan has a new album and is touring this summer with her Lilith Fair.

We’ve been a fan of Sarah McLachlan since hearing the talented Canadian singer-songwriter’s hit, “Possession,” from 1994’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Nettwerk). And we’ve long admired her commitment to issues close to her heart — from the 1997 launch of Lilith Fair, a female-driven festival as a reaction to the reluctance of promoters to book multiple female acts on the same bill, to her heart-wrenching ads for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. So we’re pleased to see her return with her first studio album in seven years, Laws of Illusion (Arista, 2010), and the first Lilith Fair since 1999, kicking off June 27. For our preview of some tour highlights and performers’ philanthropic endeavors, check out “Women Who Rock” in the latest issue of VIVmag.

During McLachlan’s hiatus since Afterglow (Arista, 2003), she’s lost none of the charm that’s garnered her a loyal fan base — an angel’s voice tempered with human vulnerability and raw emotion. That time also saw McLachlan, 42, separate from her husband, Ashwin Sood, in 2008, and much of the album unabashedly deals with the pain and slow dissolution of a long-term relationship.

Listeners are ushered into Laws of Illusion with the pop ebb and flow of “Awakenings,” in which McLachlan muses about when the “cracks began to show” and asks, “I’m not the girl I was / What have I become?” Difficult questions continue in “U Want Me 2,” while “Forgiveness,” “Illusions of Bliss,” “Changes” and the pleading “Don’t Give Up on Us” follow the themes of the album, which McLachlan describes as “loss and denial and all sorts of deep, juicy, meaty, sad stuff.”

But McLachlan isn’t one to cut listeners with shards of broken heart or immerse them in a tunnel without a light at the end. In the clip in which she discusses her new record’s heartache-tinged songs, she gives a sunny smile and adds the record is about “happy stuff, too.” The first single, “Loving You Is Easy,” has a merry, upbeat piano to back McLachlan as she sings about the ebullience of newfound love. In fact, in “Heartbreak,” she playfully taunts, “Heartbreak no you can’t catch me / Hot on my heels but I move too fast.” There’s also hope for new relationships in “Love Come” and finding someone who’s a sanctuary in a chaotic, imperfect world, with “Out of Tune.”

Aside from hearing a wide variety of musicians this year, including McLachlan, Mary J. Blige, Carly Simon, Metric and the Bangles, those who attend Lilith Fair will be able to check out the four enterprises of the Lilith [i4c] Campaign, which receives $1 from each ticket sale and supports thoughtful entrepreneurship committed to people, the planet and profit. Do you plan to attend Lilith Fair this year?

Photo credit: Raphael Mazzucco

Tags: Adia, Adoptees, Afterglow, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, Angel, Ashwin Sood, Carly Simon, Entertainment/Culture, Forgiveness, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Human Interest, Illusions of Bliss, Lilith, Lilith Fair, Mary J. Blige, Music, Music Album Release, Pop music, Pop songs, Possession, Raphael Mazzucco, Sarah McLachlan, Singer (Indonesia) B.V, singer-songwriter, songwriter, the first Lilith Fair, USD