Possession (Piano Version)

Her voice is beautiful and this son is one of her most haunting. Any fan of Sarah mcLachlan should have this on thier mp3 player.

I was annoyed at the beginning chords, since they are the same thing she's been doing since the 90's. It comes together after a few seconds, but continues to loop annoyingly through the same progression. It actually distracts from her voice and the words.

The track is not outstanding. She used to be outstanding, but it seems as if she has reached the extent of her artistry. A sad thing, yes, but Sarah MacLachlan helped to pioneer an era of female singer-songwriters that got away from the "belter" divas showing off their vocal acrobats (but I love those singers too). She is good, but this does not show that.

The strange intro that folks have mentioned doesn't bother me a bit. For those that are bothered by it, it's been pointed out how to "fix" that in iTunes.

All being that said, this is simply a very touching and beautiful song.

I haven't pulled out my copy of the original release, but if memory serves this "acoustic" version of Possession was included at the very end of the album of songs. If you waited patiently (hence the wonderful atonal music distorted by feedback at the beginning of the song), you were rewarded by a simple piano/vocal arrangement of one the album's "hits". This "legacy" release version sounds re-engineered with reverb added and possibly even a faster tempo. These changes (and listening to it in isolation) dilute the emotional affect of peace, repose and surrender provided by this piano/vocal arrangement as appended to the end of the original release.

The song is much more sparse and somber, this version is no longer a pop song.

As the other reviewers mentioned, there is a weird intro that sounds like leftovers from another song. Luckily, you can set the Start Time to 0:28 in iTunes (right click on a song in iTunes, click Get Info, click Options, set the Start Time). All is well.