Customer Reviews
Different To Her Other Work - By: S. Smith, 14 Dec 2003 
Touch was Sarah's debut album, & her talent is clear for all to see. If anything this album has more hooks & riffs on it than any others Sarah has done. Sadly, it does sound a little dated having been madein 1988 which may put some people off.
Each song has at least one big standout point, be it Sarah's soaring vocalsin "Sad Clown", or the sparse & emtional ending on "Ben's Song", or the nearly classical "Touch". Each song is a joy to listen to & they grow on you the more you listen.
Highly recommended if you dont mind the slightly dated sound.
The ethereal sound sound of Sarah McLachlan's debut album - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 20 Sep 2003 
Sarah McLachlan's debut album, the 1989 release "Touch," confirms my working hypothesis that the best artists do not make a giant splash with a debut album who critical & popular success is never again equalled, but instead offer up a first album that showcases a distinctive sound & evidences musical talent. McLachlan was only 19 when the album was recorded, yet she was already showing a sense of maturity well beyond the current crop of singing Lolitas that are strutting themselvesin music vidoes.
If you had to hang on label on McLachlan at this pointin her career it would be a young Kate Bush (a reference that is hopefully not lost on everybody). In addition to writing & singing the songs, McLachlan plays several types of guitars, piano & keyboards, & also does teh cover design & photo tinting. However, her producer at this point is Greg Reely & not Pierre Marchand, which probably is why this album does not sound like the McLachlan from the rest of her albums, with Reely overlaying her vocals with lots of lush keyboards. This is why the piano ballad "Ben's Song" stands out so much on this album; its simplicitly isin stark contrast to the rest of the tracks.
McLachlan's music is ahead of her vocals at this point. "Vox" & "Steaming" offer up some beautiful melodies (and I like "Sad Clown") but the singing is more of an additional instrument; this is not the sultry vocalist that we know today. Here you are impressed by her vocal range, rather than what she is actually doing with her voice. Two years later McLachlan took a quantum leap forward with "Solace," which evinced much stronger songwriting & was the foundation for McLachlan's initial pre-Lilith Fair cult following. Her debut album is not the first album most of McLachlan’s fans are going to pick up, but when they get around to checking it out they are going to find it an interesting look backwards at the first efforts of a young singer, fumbling towards finding her sound.
Excellent - By: , 20 Jan 2001 Despite the fact that Sarah's first long player is very differentin style to her others Touch is still an excellent album. There are a great deal of high points, including the wonderful Vox & the mysterious Steaming. Some people may say that Touch hasn't aged very well, however I believe it is a brilliant reminder of her earlier career.
Dated but well worth a listen - By: peter@england867.freeserve.co.uk, 03 Mar 2000 
I was introduced to Sarah Maclachlan through 'Angel' & then more recently I heard her singing a beautiful songin 'Toy Story 2'. This made me decide to buy one of her albums & so I opted for one of her first. It is interesting to listen to as you can hear sounds that she goes onto develop laterin her career. Unfortunatly it is stuck with very much 80's backing & so ends up sounding like sythensizer music that's best left at the back of the shelf. Apart from this there is a beautiful song near the end 'Ben's Song' & it is worth buying the album just for this one song.
