21 for 21: #17—Sara McLachlan, "Surfacing"

Just skip track #7.

Number 17 on my top 21 favorite CDs from my collection is "Surfacing" by Sara McLachlan. Before she became fodder for comedians and responsible for the music used in the most emotionally manipulative advertising campaign ever ("Angel" used for the ASPCA, set behind video footage of the most pathetic dogs and cats ever filmed), she won a Grammy from this album for the song "Sweet Surrender" and saw the album rise all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart.

Like her fellow Canadian chanteuse at #18 (k.d. lang), McLachlan has the kind of voice that sounds like melted caramel tastes. My reaction to listening to her sing is similar to the reaction Prince Eric had when he first heard Ariel sing in "The Little Mermaid." However, since I'm already happily married, I'll just stick with the CD, thanks.

This album contains three absolute masterpieces singles—"Building a Mystery," "Sweet Surrender," and perhaps one of the best songs of all time, "Adia." The last of these three is so transcendent I often have doubts as to whether a human voice actually recorded this; it may very well be the work of angels. If this were the only song on the album worth listening to, it would still be part of my list. However, the whole work is well worth your time—even the poor doggy and kitty song.

It's also worth noting that Sara McLachlan also sings the song "When She Loved Me" on the Toy Story 2 soundtrack. It's the song playing when Jessie the Cowgirl remembers the days when her child Emily still loved her, before she forgot her and tossed her out like an old shoe. That was that moment in the theater when you realized that a cartoon was making you cry like a toddler. Her voice has the power to do that (except when urging you to give now to the ASPCA).

If the trend of Canadian female singers continues, it's statistically likely that Shania Twain and Anne Murray will show up somewhere in the next 16 discs. But you'll have to keep checking in to find out just what is next. In the meantime, here's the voice of an angel: