Album Essentials: Sarah McLachlan "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" (1993)

By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor

“The game you’re expected to play to be in this world — I just knew I’d like to have as little as possible to do with it,” Sarah McLachlan told the Los Angeles Times in a fairly recent interview surrounding the anniversary of her landmark LP, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. “I think that’s when I discovered that I’m actually an introvert,” she says of the yearlong recording process. “I need to go away and be by myself.”

Arista Records was trying to figure her out, and she was put through the usual moves of the machine as to how to market this Canadian songstress to the U.S. in an age of "alternative," "grunge," and so on. With longtime producer Pierre Marchand by her side, they retreated to a remote studio in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains to focus on the recording. The chips would fall where they may, and she and the album would benefit from it.

McLachlan was signed to noted Canadian label Nettwerk, as well as Arista Records in America, and with two albums to her catalog—Touch in 1988 and Solace in 1991—it seemed like a logical jump to focus on her third effort as a somewhat "make or break" album. Released in October of 1993, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy seemed to strike all the right chords at just the right time and, eventually, Sarah McLachlan was everywhere. But it took some time!

An instant hit in Canada, the album took longer to gain momentum in the States, but its steady ascent was fueled by great reviews—often calling her the "Joni Mitchell for a new generation"—and an ever-growing fanbase. Like Joni, Sarah's journey was a long haul. The singles from the album—"Possession," "Hold On," and "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy"—all helped people find out about her, but the album initially stalled at #50.

Her follow-up album, Surfacing, wouldn't surface until 1997, but in that time between, she would establish the Lilith Fair festival, as year by year, month by month, Fumbling kept selling. Eventually, it would reach Platinum status a few times over and truly bring success to McLachlan.

“I’d toured and toured and toured and built up a really solid fanbase,” she noted. “Fumbling really felt to me like freedom, getting to fully immerse myself in music.”