I have to admit,,When I first listen to this cd, I felt a bit dissapointed...the songs all seemed soft and slow. Nothing seemed to be easily accessible, with the Fallen being an exception.. But after listening, I discovered more to this whole album. Yes, this is different than her previous, but that is good! Change is good, and these songs show a maturity that some artist never aquire. I hate buying a new cd from an artist I enjoy and it sounds the same. These songs are all beautiful and now I love this album. The title Afterglow is apt, for these songs leave a warm, quiet feeling in your soul. Don't give up on this one just because it takes some time to enjoy. Best songs, in my opinion, World on Fire, Stupid and Time. Though I could find something to love on each song

Sarah McLachlan's gorgeous, luscious voice is once again the centrepiece in her work. Despite most of the material being written well before life-changing events such as her mother's death and the birth of her daughter, the songs on this album are just about that -- life, death, and all the messy things in-between. Sarah's pacing and style, as always, are acquired tastes... she wraps her voice around you like a warm blanket in "Answer"; at other times, she glides coolly and effortlessly, as a glacier would over tundra, setting up an introspective mood.

Overall, the sound record to me seems to be a combination of her last three albums proper; there are the requisite Surfacing era piano-based ballads in "Answer," and "Dirty Little Secret," the Solace era melodies in "Drifting,' and the verses of 'Stupid', the Fumbling Towards Ecstasy textures and lyrical depth in "World on Fire," (mostly written by her producer Pierre Marchand) "Stupid," and the fantastic "Dirty Little Secret."

I like 9 out of the 10 songs, which, in my books, is no small feat for any artist to accomplish. "Drifing," is the only song that I'm indifferent about, but that might change after time.

"Fallen," the lead single, is about the irrevocable mistakes we make in our lives that force us to wallow within, and then move on. In terms of sound, it's reminiscent of "Building A Mystery," from her last album, Surfacing.

"World on Fire," is a beautiful song about ugliness. Being the only song written after her mother's passing and her daughter's birth, its subject matter is the reconciliation of innocence with chaos in our post 9/11 world. Sarah's voice soars, and the instrumentation is lush, harkening back to Fumbling Towards Ecstasy's layered textures.

"Stupid" is as close to a driving, straight-ahead rock song on the album as Sarah gets, and it is a great payoff. A killer chorus is bookended by Solace-style, melodic verses about being smitten by someone that you know is bad for you. Sarah's voice is raw and close to the edge; it would be amazing to see her just cut loose and let her powerful voice go completely, as it did in her cover of XTC's "Dear God." Another thing to note is that he strings and orchestration for "Stupid" are a brilliant touch.

"Train Wreck" is notable because it offers, for a Sarah McLachlan song, unusual instrumentation. There are ambient electronic sounds and beats, and hopefully this is an avenue she and her producer will further explore on her next album, when she tackles the weighty dramas that have consumed her life in the past few years.

"Answer" is, well, the Answer to "Angel." It's a low-key, very chill track that epitomizes what Sarah McLachlan's recent sound has transformed into -- an extremely soothing, maternal sound that comforts us and slows us down in our sometimes too fast-paced world. Centred around the piano, Sarah's voice is at the forefront, taking all troubles to "wash this from my mind."

"Dirty Little Secret" is a very personal song, and could well be this album's "Do What You Have To Do.' It has the storytelling quality of her work on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. Confessional lyrics are glazed with a decadent wine sauce; the result is nothing short of epic, as she journeys through a messy relationship from the past.

It's hard to argue that Sarah is an artist that speaks to her audience, and that she is an artist who is getting more and more precise with her composing and deliberate in her writing. She conjures complex, emotional nuance in unpretentious, natural lyrics that can catch a listener offguard in a moment of vulnerability or reflection. This is an album that will surprise you on one of those nights when you're listening with headphones after one too many drinks.

In a bleak musical landscape littered with gangster rappers one-upping each other about guns, cash, and hos, cookie-cutter hip-hop beats and hooks, and manufactured pop tarts that are known best by their first names, Sarah's voice blasts across the skyline like a radiant shaft of light. Sarah McLachlan is so endearingly unphased by trends; instead, she tip-toes gently through the geography of the heart.

I have been into Sarah since my freshman year in college when Fumbling was owned by ever college kid on my hall. Nine years, a surfacing, a lilith fair, a mirrorball and a long and much deserved rest later, Sarah McLachlan digs back into the past and resurfaces with an album that is both timid and kind of shocking. Many reviews say this album is too mellow or it sounds too much like Surfacing, but what resonates most when I hear this album are the most luxurious moments on her second album Solace combined with some of the haunting elements of Fumbling and Surfacing. I am one Sarah fan who did not obsessively LOVE Surfacing because I jumped on the Sarah boat long before her 8-million selling opus Surfacing was released and thought it was more for the masses and less for the underground Sarah 'word of mouth' fan.

The title Afterglow is perfect because after all the fame and exposure, here is an album that certainly doesn't lack any consistancy nor does it lack the style that longtime Sarah fans have come to expect and BEST OF ALL, it does not feel like a mass marketable album. This album is Sarah going back and revisiting her early recording days and literally resurfacing with an album greater than the sum of it's parts, an album that people who don't know her work will ask 'hey..this is gorgeous and intense, who is it?'

Afterglow is a celebration of everything that began with Touch and climaxed with Surfacing. It sonically attempts to answer what does an artist do when they have a mega-selling release and still maintain integrity as a songwriter and artist.

Fallen is an instant Sarah classic that bleeds into the amazing World on Fire that sounds like the creative child of both Solace and Fumbling. The next track, Stupid is an intense and passionate track that harkens back to B-Side's Dear God. This is aptly followed by the beautiful Drifting and the layered alto-soprano droll we all love that fumbles into Trainwreck, containing one my favourite sarah chorus' written to date and a sonic compliment to Surfacing's Black&White.

Answer is the Answer to Surfacing's Angel. Push is a tender love song that I have no comparison to make. Time, on the other hand, is a complex track filled with more layered vocals that I adore and rhythmically similar to Solace's Shelter. The album closes with Dirty Little Secret that can only be described as a cross between Surfacing's Full of Grace and B-Sides Song for a Winter's Night. If you love Joni Mitchell and Sarah, this song is an absolute delight.

So let the critics balk at this disc and let the die hard surfacing fans be disappointed. This an album for the fans who have appreciated all of Sarah's works, not just one album. After hearing so many elemnets of prior albums on this disc, I really feel it is journey back to take a step forward. The music world and lovers of music have waited long for this album to be released, and it is an absolute pleasure on my ears and my soul....like every single release this amazing artist has produced.

Dark and beautiful. Those are really the best terms to describe "Afterglow"... ten melancholy pop gems that showcase Sarah McLachlan's bewitching vocals and sad lyrics. It's easy to understand why the album is so downbeat in places; Sarah lost her mother and took a break to avoid burnout, and it shows in tracks like "Fallen","Drifting", "Dirty Little Secret", and the post-September 11 downer "World on Fire". But in spite of all the angst, the songs ring true; there are complicated arrangements and stirring melodic hooks that only begin to reveal themselves after several listens. The overall pace of the album is pretty even, with a pair of shimmering piano ballads ("Answer", "Dirty Little Secret"), a mellow jazz/funk tune "Train Wreck", and the sweeping shadowy pop of "Fallen", "Stupid" and "Drifting". Gone are the trip-hop textures of her earlier work; this album is more mature, sophisticated, and emotionally layered than earlier recordings. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we hear these tunes on the soundtracks of "Alias" or "Smallville", unfortunately, but until VH-1 and angsty college kids claim them as their own, bathe in the dark beauty that is Sarah McLachlan's music.

I was really looking forward to this album. Maybe that was part of the problem. Then again, I was waiting desperately for "Surfacing" to be released, and I got kind of dissapointed by that too. It's very possible that I'm being one of those 'elitist jerks' who whines about how things used to be 'back in the day,' but I have to say that I'm really not enjoying the direction that Sarah McLachlan is taking, musically.

There is something very much missing on this album. Something that's been slowly dissapearing since 1996's "Rarities, B-Sides, and Other Stuff". That missing element? Experimentation. I absolutely *adored* "Solace", "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy", "The Freedom Sessions", "Rarities, B-Sides, and Other Stuff", and various singles and one-offs that she did before 1998. There was such eclecticism and this amazing feeling of atmosphere. There was depth and texture to the backgrounds that totally set off and highlight Sarah's beautiful voice.

No, I didn't love every track on all of those CD's, but I appreciated them because there was variety. "Surfacing" still had a shadow of that, but mostly on the tracks released previously. The real stand-out tracks, for me, on "Surfacing" were "Full of Grace" and "Angel" (before it got played into the ground.) But with "Afterglow", the only track that really grabs me at all is "Fallen", and I'm guessing that's going to get over tired pretty quick, with all its radio play.

Don't get me wrong. The musicianship and vocals on "Afterglow" are really solid. I'm just really sad that both kind of blend into a monotone by the end of the album. I miss the experimentation and the mood that was so wonderfully present in her early to mid-1990's albums. I hope to hear them again one day.