The 15 best Sarah McLachlan songs, ranked

Sarah McLachlan's breadth of influence is immeasurable nearly 40 years after she began her career.

The singer, originally from Halifax but now a decades-long British Columbian, released her breakthrough third album, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, in 1993, during the height of grunge. While the bite of that era showed up in her songwriting, McLachlan kept showing up unapologetically as herself: a woman with an incredible and singular voice, a guitar and a lot of feelings. 

Four years later, after releasing her next powerhouse album, Surfacing, the singer would start Lilith Fair, the groundbreaking all-women music festival that was born out of McLachlan being told that women couldn't play back-to-back at a festival or on the radio — and it broke records.

"It would be difficult to overstate the influence of Sarah McLachlan on my work and ethos," Montreal singer-songwriter and Grammy winner Allison Russell told the Los Angeles Times last year, ahead of McLachlan's anniversary tour for Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. "There's nothing soft about her — there's a strength at the core of her delivery of these messages and stories. It's like a firm hug from a friend," said Leslie Feist in the same set of interviews.

In honour of the release of McLachlan's first album in a decade, plus the upcoming documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, CBC Music's editorial team dove in and ranked McLachlan's 15 best songs. There was a lot to consider: starting with the Juno- and Grammy-winning artist's 1988 debut album, Touch, and counting 10 studio albums once Better Broken drops in September.

It was a contentious summer, pouring over decades of music that has meant so much to so many. We didn't count any of McLachlan's Christmas material, of which there is plenty. We did count a popular song of hers that has soundtracked scenes from Dawson's Creek to Family Guy to Brooklyn Nine-Nine — but you'll have to read on to see if it made it.

Below are McLachlan's 15 best songs of all time, as selected by CBC Music. You can fight us in the comments.

For more on Sarah McLachlan, tune in to CBC Music Mornings with Damhnait Doyle at 8:40 a.m. local time (9:10 NT) on Friday, Sept. 5, for essential tracks from the B.C. artist, and Drive with Rich Terfry  at 5 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. NT) that afternoon for a deep dive into McLachlan's 1993 album, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.
 

15. Better Broken (2025)

McLachlan made her triumphant return this year with Better Broken, the title track off her first album in a decade. Her voice sounds as strong as ever, with her distinct inflections on those high notes hitting with a deep sense of warmth and comfort for longtime fans. It perfectly pairs with the song's lyrics about moving on from a breakup as McLachlan feels at peace with knowing that the past is "small and still and better left alone." All these years later, there's still no one who can do exactly what McLachlan does. — Melody Lau

14. Ice Cream (1993)

This cut off Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is such a treat that it's become a sing-along favourite at the McLachlan's live shows. The simple, under-three-minute song enumerates how "your love is better than ice cream" atop an upbeat guitar-and-drum combo, but still gets in a few, more complicated feelings: "It's a long way down to the place where we started," McLachlan sings after each chorus, letting in that fear of falling out of the delicious feeling of early love. On an album that also includes the stalker-inspired Possession, Ice Cream is the perfect salve. — Holly Gordon

13. Train Wreck (2003)

Stirring, moody guitar guides McLachlan on this song that positions her as a disaster in the wings: "'Cause I'm a train wreck, waiting to happen/ waiting for someone to come pick me up off the tracks." Luckily, love is her solace, and over a chorus of ooos her voice ascends: "In your sweet embrace/ all my pain's erased." The buzzing electric guitars give it some bite, as her voice curls around a smattering of hi-hats. Losing oneself entirely in a romance has never sounded so sweet. — Natalie Harmsen

12. Vox (1988)

Vox is the first single off Touch, McLachlan's debut album, and it introduced us to the singer's trademark mix of poetic lyricism, deep feelings and graceful vocal acrobatics. But if you haven't heard it, that's understandable: the eventually upbeat, keyboard-fuelled track is a little off the beaten path for how McLachlan would eventually sound, and has been eclipsed by her powerhouse hits. It's a must-listen, though, for fans who want to know the origin song of McLachlan's ability to wrap a dark brooding in joyful sound: "You're gone and I'm lost inside this tangled web in which I'm lain entwined," she sings in the closing lines, finally asking, "Oh why, oh why?" — HG

11. Angel (1997)

I need some distraction,
Oh, beautiful release.
Memories seep from my veins,
Let me be empty,
Oh, and weightless and maybe,
I'll find some peace tonight.

Before it became the theme song for mistreated animals everywhere, Angel was mostly known as a mournful ode to musicians lost to suicide and overdoses, namely Jonathan Melvoin, a keyboardist for the Smashing Pumpkins. It was the first song McLachlan wrote for her fourth album, 1997's Surfacing, after reading a string of Rolling Stone articles covering tragic deaths in the music industry. She told CMJ New Music Monthly that she felt "a really great empathy" for these musicians and she continued, saying "I've been in that place where you're so f---ked up and you're so lost that you don't know who you are anymore … and here's this escape route. I've never done heroin, but I've done plenty of other things to escape." She transmuted all that emotion into the crushing Angel, a song that encapsulates her uncanny ability to pen heartwrenching and evocative music while still eking out a chorus that people can't help but sing along to. — Kelsey Adams

10. The Path of Thorns (Terms) (1991)

"With fervour our dreams we planned a whole life long/ now are scattered on the wind," McLachlan sings on this aching track about a breakup. The pain of chasing someone who cannot give you what you need in a relationship is the fuel, and McLachlan taps into it, letting her emotions overflow. While on the lengthier side — the track clocks in at more than five minutes — she makes use of every second, wrapping her voice around the rich instrumentals in a warm embrace. — NH

9. Into the Fire (1991)

Into the Fire was the mainstream's introduction to McLachlan. The second single off her 1991 album, Solace, gained major radio play and placement on MuchMusic, the ultimate gateway to younger, broader audiences across Canada. Its edgy, experimental production was a departure from McLachlan's earlier indie-folk work, stretching into the quintessential '90s alternative pop sound. Brimming with divine feminine energy, the song launched her on a path to becoming one of Canada's most beloved singer-songwriters of her generation. — Ashley Catania

8. Elsewhere (1993)

Teeming with angst, Elsewhere stretches across a sombre melody. It's a coming-of-age track about living life on your own terms, and it feels like McLachlan's diary has come to life: "I believe this is heaven to no one else but me/ and I'll defend it long as I can be." As McLachlan sings, an air of defiance swirls around the words. She sounds steadfast in staying true to herself, backed by a sea of moody guitar. — NH

7. Fallen (2003)

"Heaven bend to take my hand/ I've nowhere left to turn," McLachlan confesses on Fallen. A song about being swallowed up by your worst moments and mistakes, Fallen finds a way to maintain hope in the darkness as she assures on the chorus: "I messed up/ better, I should know." The track is elevated by its gorgeous instrumental arrangements: guitars slide through, giving way to dizzying strings, all while complementing McLachlan's revealing and vulnerable performance. — ML

6. Drawn to the Rhythm (1992)

Vivid, evocative images of water, waves, sunshine and the northern Llights are conjured up by McLachlan on Drawn to the Rhythm. It's a mesmerizing ode to nature that features Celtic folk instrumentation and spotlights a dazzling vocal performance where McLachlan fully taps into her upper register. While the chorus is undeniably beautiful, one of the standout verses comes near the end of the song: "In the face of a blinding sun/ awake only to find/ that heaven is a stranger place/ than the one I'd left behind." — NH

5. Adia (1997)

Few songs from the '90s hit as immediately and dramatically as the first line of Adia: "Adia, I do believe I failed you," McLachlan sings, staring straight into the camera for a closeup in the video. Released on the singer's Surfacing album, Adia was McLachlan's first song to hit the top five on Billboard's Hot 100, and was intensely personal for the singer. "I fell in love with my best friend's ex," she has explained at numerous tour stops over the years, explaining that Adia is about that "tricky time in between" when the two friends had to break apart. (McLachlan, who married the ex, is now divorced, and has long been best friends again with the person in question.) Adia was nominated for a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance in 1999 — but lost to another Canadian juggernaut, Céline Dion's My Heart Will Go On. — HG

4. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993)

From the first verse of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, McLachlan's voice soars like a weight has been lifted. As the title track to her third (and breakout) album, the song is a thesis of sorts: McLachlan is adamant that she will hold on to her vulnerability, no matter the cost. Over atmospheric production, she sings the chorus over and over like a mantra: "If I shed a tear I won't cage it/ I won't fear love/ if I feel a rage I won't deny it/ I won't fear love." It's a spellbinding reminder of how to truly show up for oneself, in all of her flawed, frayed and tender truth. — KA

3. Possession (1993)

Dark lore surrounds McLachlan's 1993 hit Possession. The lead single for Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, it was an instant fan favourite, but found McLachlan exploring a dark side to her newfound fame. Loosely based on the artist's experiences with threats, fear and obsessive fans-turned-stalkers, the song is haunting, through both its arrangements and raw, seductive lyrics: "My body aches to breathe your breath/ your words keep me alive." "I tried to put myself into their shoes, into the mind of someone who is so obsessed with another person that they could conceive murdering them," she recalled, later stating that writing the song "was very therapeutic." It remains one of the most distinct songs of McLachlan's career. — AC

2. Sweet Surrender (1997)

Sweet Surrender cold opens with a guitar-turned-siren, a harbinger for the arrival of one of McLachlan's biggest hits. The second single from Surfacing, Sweet Surrender deftly followed on the heels of Building a Mystery, in the same year that Lilith Fair became the top-grossing touring festival. 1997 truly was the year of Sarah McLachlan, and with this single she stayed vulnerable, writing about loving someone for who they really are — even the parts they deem unlovable. "Take me in, no questions asked," sings McLachlan over that now nostalgic guitar riff, on a song inspired by the doomed love story in Leaving Las Vegas. But Sweet Surrender transcends any origin story, the chorus hanging on that powerful voice we've come to know and love: "Sweet surrender/ is all that I have to give." — HG

1. Building a Mystery (1997)

In Montreal in 1996, McLachlan was playing around with guitar riffs when her frequent co-writer Pierre Marchand's ears perked up after hearing the bones of what would become Building a Mystery. Marchand immediately knew it was a "keeper" and shared some lyrics he'd been sitting on, and although they felt no pressure to write a hit, it became the album's lead single nonetheless. It was released in June 1997, one month before the album Surfacing, and quickly shot up the Canadian charts and Billboard's Adult Alternative list.

Building a Mystery taps into the facades people construct; the idealized versions of themselves they present to the world, often as a kind of armour: "Yeah you're working/ building a mystery/ and choosing so carefully," she sings on the chorus. But, ultimately it's the authentic side to people that McLachlan celebrates as worthy of embracing. The song nabbed her one of her first Grammys, winning pop vocal performance of the year in 1998 (she also took home an award for best pop instrumental performance for Last Dance that night). A month later, she won single of the year and songwriter of the year at the Juno Awards. Almost three decades later, Building a Mystery remains one of McLachlan's enduring hits, a perfect conduit for her mystical voice, expressive songwriting and pop sensibilities. — KA