Fumbling Towards Ecstasy [Bonus CD/DVD]

Disc 1
1	Possession 4:39
2	Wait 4:09
3	Plenty 4:05
4	Good Enough 5:03
5	Mary 3:55
6	Elsewhere 4:44
7	Circle 3:43
8	Ice 3:55
9	Hold On 4:09
10	Ice Cream 2:44
11	Fear 3:59
12	Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 4:56
13	Possession Piano Version 4:30
Disc 2
1	Elsewhere 4:35
2	Plenty 3:23
3	Mary 3:56
4	Good Enough 3:20
5	Hold On 6:45
6	Ice Cream 2:35
7	Ice 4:00
8	Ol' 55 4:15
9	Hold On Alternate Version 4:43
Disc 3
1	Plenty DVD
2	Good Enough DVD
3	Wait DVD
4	Home DVD
5	Ice DVD
6	Ben's Song DVD
7	Out of the Shadows DVD
8	I Will Not Forget You DVD
9	Path of Thorns DVD
10	Hold On DVD
11	Possession DVD
12	Mary DVD
13	Ice Cream DVD
14	Fumbling Towards Ecstacy DVD
15	Ol' 55 DVD
16	Possession US Version / Multimedia Track
17	Possession DVD / Version
18	Hold On DVD
19	Good Enough DVD
20	Bonus Materials DVD

All Music Guide

Although 1991's Solace made Sarah McLachlan a star in Canada, her international breakthrough arrived two years later with Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, a softly assured album that combined the atmospheric production of Pierre Marchand (a former apprentice -- and evident disciple -- of Daniel Lanois) with some of McLachlan's strongest songwriting to date. At the center of everything was her voice, an ethereal, lilting soprano that helped pave the way for Paula Cole, Lillith Fair, and a decade's worth of successful female songwriters. McLachlan utilized the crack between her chest and head voice, emphasizing the changing tones as her melodies climbed into the vocal stratosphere. She was also comparatively young at the time of Ecstasy's release, and her combination of vocal hooks and commercial appeal wouldn't be fully mastered until 1997's Surfacing. Even so, McLachlan's work was rarely as raw or honest as it is here, where tales of sin, lust, and love are delivered alongside piano arpeggios and electronic flourishes. "Possession," the album's lead-off single, is a jarring love ballad with lyrics inspired by a stalker's correspondence. There's a double-edged quality to the song's eerie lines -- "I'll take your breath away," "I won't be denied," "Just close your eyes, dear" -- and Marchand underscores that tension by setting McLachlan's melodies to a nocturnal trip-hop beat. Elsewhere, the two lighten up with "Ice Cream," which likens love's sweetness to decadent deserts, yet Fumbling Towards Ecstasy takes most of its strength from the lush, rhythmic dreamscapes that dominate the album. Alternately dark and shimmering, intimate and ornate, soothing and slyly unsettling, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy launched McLachlan's international star power while setting a high bar for her future albums, many of which approached -- but not never quite eclipsed -- this career highlight. [An extended "legacy edition" of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was released in 2008, commemorating the album's 15-year anniversary with a three-disc package comprising the original album, the gold-certified Freedom Sessions, and a live DVD filmed in 1994.] Andrew Leahey

Rolling Stone

1/2 This 1994 breakthrough remains her atmospheric soft-rocking peak because gracefully goth marvels like "Fear" are not only exquisitely rendered but emotionally accessible. Barry Walters