SARAH McLACHLAN: “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” (Arista)

THIS YOUNG lady from the Canadian Maritimes is a huge star in her own country, and is already making significant inroads into the US market. It’s easy to see why, since her lush guitar and synth-based musings are radio-friendly in the extreme. To leave it at that, though, is to considerably understate the situation, for there is so much more to McLachlan’s talent.

She has, in the first instance, an ear for melody that even a classical composer would die for. Seemingly innocuous little tunes, built on guitar keyboard and percussion motifs, worm their way into the subconscious, and you genuinely have to resist the temptation to press the replay button, so compelling are the finished products. Lyrically too, she displays a fine touch. The songs cover childhood relationships, moodswings and ice-cream (seriously folks) among their range of subjects and are like three and four minute confessionals which draw the listener into a demi-monde of revelation which, though personal to the artist, could well apply to any one of us.

There is about all of this a vulnerability which is most affecting, a sensitivity which finds its primary expression in the symbiosis between McLachlan and her producer (and sometime co-writer on the title track), Pierre Marchand, who, if memory serves correctly, has also worked with the McGarrigle Sisters.

The bottom line is that with the belated release here of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, we may well have found ourselves another female star to add to me already burgeoning galaxy. Ignore this album if you believe that ecstasy isn’t good for you.

• Oliver P. Sweeney