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She’s never been the most prolific artist, but since entering the ‘domestic bliss’ portion of her life, Sarah McLachlan has established a recording schedule that would make Enya jealous, releasing only one album of original material in the last decade. Give Arista credit for doing what it can to stuff the gap, though — Rarities, B-Sides, and Other Stuff Volume 2 comes on the heels of a deluxe reissue of her Mirrorball live album, which itself followed her second live album, Afterglow Live. Given this paucity of new material, it would be wonderful to be able to say that the 14 songs collected here present some sort of significant value for McLachlan fans, but they really don’t. Her voice sounds beautiful no matter what she’s using it for, but the bulk of Volume 2 consists of goopy soundtrack cuts (like “Ordinary Miracle”) and live cuts. And who let Bryan Adams in here? Or thought it would be a good idea for anyone else to hear McLachlan playing hook girl on DMC’s god-awful “cover” of “Cat’s in the Cradle”? There are a few cool things in here, but do yourself a favor and cherry-pick them from your favorite digital storefront and leave the rest. (Arista 2008)
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