Sarah McLachlan

She’s been around since 1988, but Sarah McLachlan will probably always be associated with Lilith Fair, the epochal tour of female singer-songwriters she helped organize in the mid-’90s. When not fighting her good fight, McLachlan writes yearning, churning songs flecked with rock and folk, both of which can course a bit too close to New Age wistfulness on occasion. She had been laying low in compilation territory since 2003’sAfterglow, but resurfaced in 2010 for the revival of Lilith Fair, releasing an album (the mediocre Laws Of Illusion) and appearing in countless cripplingly pathetic ASPCA commercials, cradling sad-eyed dogs in danger of being euthanized. Way to pull at those heart strings, McLachlan.

Updated 03/01/2011