Timely wisdom from Sarah McLachlan

There was a time when Sarah McLachlan was everywhere.

- AUDIOJUNKIE BY PUNCH LIWANAG

Almost ubiquitous in fact. Especially between the years 1998 and 2005. Starting with the Canadian singer-songwriter's 1997 album “Surfacing,” the singles from that album would put the singer on the world music map. Beginning with the pop-alt-tinged “Building A Mystery” that put Sarah right smack in the middle of the whole rock-chick sphere (that included Alanis, Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, Shawn Colvin, etc), a category the media put female songwriters with a sensitive streak into. Nevertheless, it was a cascade of successful singles from Sarah thereon: the mid-tempo alt-rock “Sweet Surrender,” the piano-driven intimacy of the ballad “Adia,” and the heart-wrenching ballad “Angel” (about musicians lost to drug use), which became a de facto theme music elegy for the tragedies of the day.