Rarities, B-Sides 2 And Other Stuff, Volume 2 | Sarah McLachlan

Rarities, B-Sides 2 And Other Stuff, Volume 2 | Sarah McLachlan | Pretty good, though not entirely rare

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Rarities, B-Sides ...

	Rarities, B-Sides 2 And Other Stuff, Volume 2 Sarah McLachlan Arista, 2008 average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Culminated from Sarah McLachlan's illustrious recording career, the Rarities, B-Sides And Other Stuff, Volume 2 collection contains Sarah McLachlan material never before available before on one CD. The collection includes live performances, rare recordings, remixes and soundtrack contributions. In addition, the album includes exceptional, one of a kind duets with Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, Emmylou Harris, and more! Billboard magazine raved about the album calling it "a real beauty."

An eclectic mix.

Sarah McLachlan's "Rarities, B Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2" is an eclectic mix of songs that didn't make it to the albums, or were included in various soundtracks. I personally bought the album just so I could own Sarah's version of "Blackbird", orginally by the Beatles, which I have loved for a long time now.

The album includes the obligatory remix of "Silence", and a truly bizarre cover of"Unchained Melody".

A decent purchase for any fan, although most completists won't find much new here.

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Pretty good, though not entirely rare

While I don't love this album as much as the first rarities album it has some songs on it which make it well worth the purchase.
River has become one of my favorite Sarah Mclachlan song, beautiful and haunting. Homeless and Blackbird are beautiful as well.
I did not however enjoy Time after Time. All the track proved to me was that Cyndi Lauper doesn't sound very good with her voice unaltered. I also wouldn't really call Silence a rare song. It seems to be played everywhere and all the mixes of it, including this one, sound the same.
Overall the album is very good and it is neat to hear the variety of artists that Sarah Mclachlan has teamed up with.

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Good but uneven

RARITIES, B-Sides, & OTHER STUFF volume 2 is a collection of tracks either by Sarah McLachlan herself or featured her gentle vocals. A lot of the songs can be found on compilations like FOR THE CHILDREN which "The Rainbow Connection" could be found on. As a long time fan of Sarah McLachlan's music, I had to check out this sequel to her first compilation of rare tracks and b-sides. For the most part I did like the cd but there are moments that makes me cringe and wonder what was she thinking. I absolutely despised the massacre of Harry Chapin's "Cat in the Cradle" re-titled "Just Like Me" which featured rapper DMC. Horrible doesn't even cover the description. Taking a well known popular song and turning it into some dreadful rap song is proof that a lot of rap artists do not have any imagination and are incapable of creating their own music. Sarah's vocals is the only good thing about this rancid track. The other track I just cringe whenever it comes on is Sarah's duet with Bryan Adams on "Don't Let Go". The song would have sounded better without Bryan Adams and with Sarah alone. Tiesto's remix of Delerium's "Silence" was totally unnecessary to include. That song is so tiresome and overdone.

As for the songs that I did enjoy on the album, my personal favorite song is Sarah's interpretation of "The Rainbow Connection". Her version of the classic song from THE MUPPET MOVIE is quite lovely. I am so glad that "When She Loved Me" from TOY STORY 2 was included on this compilation. That is another favorite song of mine from this compilation. I also enjoyed "River" from Sarah's winter solstice album WINTERSONG. Sarah's duets with Emmylou Harris and Cyndi Lauper are admirable but I prefer the original versions of the songs Sarah sang duets with those two artists on. I don't hate but I didn't think it was great is the song "Homeless" Sarah did with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

The problemw with RARITIES, B-SIDES, AND OTHER STUFF vol.2 is that the flow of the album was pretty choppy and uneven. I really wanted to like this album given who it is by but a lot of the material was flat and lackluster or just plain hideous. I have no doubt that Sarah's best of collection will make up for this uneven compilation.

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a myriad of styles, some brilliant, others doubtful

Worth the price to just have the Randy Newman tune from Toy Story 2 'When She Loved Me', and 'Rainbow Connection'...

It's when Mclachlan tries to impress that you feel kind of embarrassed for an artist of her stature, like the awful 'Just Like Me' with Run DMC... at least her collaborations with Cyndi Lauper and Emmylou Harris work...

But just in case you think she's gone all soft and MOR, she tries to resurrect the dance hit 'Silence' to remind you she's still got her kickass sensibility... perhaps arguably so...

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Tracks
Ordinary Miracle | Blackbird | Time After Time (with Cyndi Lauper) | River | When She Loved Me | Don't Let Go (with Bryan Adams) | Just Like Me (with Run DMC) | Angel (Live) (with Emmylou Harris) | Pills (Live) (with The Perishers) | Homeless (with Ladysmith Black Mambazo) | The Rainbow Connection | Prayer of St. Francis | Unchained Melody | Silence (DJ Tiesto ISOS Remix)

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