Touch

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Nova Scotia-born singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan was only 20 years old when Touch was released in 1988. This is an impressive first effort, though maybe too earnest in its attempt to break new ground in otherwise familiar terrain of late-80s synthesized textures. Yet McLachlan's pristine vocals and intricate guitar work yield several memorable tracks, including the opening "Out of the Shadows", the popular "Vox" (which also appears in a tripped-out--verging on hokey--remixed version at the end), and the enchanting "Strange World". Her youthful romanticism is perhaps captured best in "Trust" ("Somewhere deep inside me I hold a picture / Of a time long gone--a time of ease and / Simple pleasures..."), a catchy tune that is embellished with male vocals, sparkling keyboards, bongos, and distant electric-guitar licks. Later tracks become more endearing with each listen but in certain moods can be nauseatingly dreamy and vaporous. Nevertheless, this disc endures as a fine remembrance of the early days, when McLachlan was a fresh-eyed mystic songbird whose passions were not yet realised on an international scale. --Rebecca Robinson

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Customer reviews

review by: sitorimon date: 2003-12-14 rating:
Different To Her Other Work
Touch was Sarah's debut album, and her talent is clear for all to see. If anything this album has more hooks and riffs on it than any others Sarah has done. Sadly, it does sound a little dated having been made in 1988 which may put some people off.
Each song has at least one big standout point, be it Sarah's soaring vocals in "Sad Clown", or the sparse and emtional ending on "Ben's Song", or the nearly classical "Touch". Each song is a joy to listen to and they grow on you the more you listen.
Highly recommended if you dont mind the slightly dated sound.

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review by: Chicken Hat Theater Improv date: 2003-09-20 rating:
The ethereal sound sound of Sarah McLachlan's debut album
Sarah McLachlan's debut album, the 1989 release "Touch," confirms my working hypothesis that the best artists do not make a giant splash with a debut album who critical and popular success is never again equalled, but instead offer up a first album that showcases a distinctive sound and evidences musical talent. McLachlan was only 19 when the album was recorded, yet she was already showing a sense of maturity well beyond the current crop of singing Lolitas that are strutting themselves in music vidoes.

If you had to hang on label on McLachlan at this point in her career it would be a young Kate Bush (a reference that is hopefully not lost on everybody). In addition to writing and singing the songs, McLachlan plays several types of guitars, piano and keyboards, and also does teh cover design and photo tinting. However, her producer at this point is Greg Reely and not Pierre Marchand, which probably is why this album does not sound like the McLachlan from the rest of her albums, with Reely overlaying her vocals with lots of lush keyboards. This is why the piano ballad "Ben's Song" stands out so much on this album; its simplicitly is in stark contrast to the rest of the tracks.

McLachlan's music is ahead of her vocals at this point. "Vox" and "Steaming" offer up some beautiful melodies (and I like "Sad Clown") but the singing is more of an additional instrument; this is not the sultry vocalist that we know today. Here you are impressed by her vocal range, rather than what she is actually doing with her voice. Two years later McLachlan took a quantum leap forward with "Solace," which evinced much stronger songwriting and was the foundation for McLachlan's initial pre-Lilith Fair cult following. Her debut album is not the first album most of McLachlan’s fans are going to pick up, but when they get around to checking it out they are going to find it an interesting look backwards at the first efforts of a young singer, fumbling towards finding her sound.

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review by: date: 2001-01-20 rating:
Excellent
Despite the fact that Sarah's first long player is very different in style to her others Touch is still an excellent album. There are a great deal of high points, including the wonderful Vox and the mysterious Steaming. Some people may say that Touch hasn't aged very well, however I believe it is a brilliant reminder of her earlier career.


review by: date: 2000-03-03 rating:
Dated but well worth a listen
I was introduced to Sarah Maclachlan through 'Angel' and then more recently I heard her singing a beautiful song in 'Toy Story 2'. This made me decide to buy one of her albums and so I opted for one of her first. It is interesting to listen to as you can hear sounds that she goes onto develop later in her career. Unfortunatly it is stuck with very much 80's backing and so ends up sounding like sythensizer music that's best left at the back of the shelf. Apart from this there is a beautiful song near the end 'Ben's Song' and it is worth buying the album just for this one song.

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