Her fifth album since 1989, Sarah McLachlan’s Afterglow combines words of wisdom with her comforting and sincere voice. Released Nov. 4 by Arista Records, this album encases five years’ time of personal and national events.
Afterglow, which means the glow or light that remains after the sun is gone, is a reverie looking back on the five years since her last studio album, Surfacing, was released in 1997.
McLachlan found inspiration in her husband, her newly born child and love (a common theme of hers) during the hiatus between albums. Her voice, piano, guitar and violin all mix together to create a flowing and evocative sound of harmony featured against her lyrics.
In the past six years, McLachlan’s life has been affected in many ways that give her the ability to write such songs as “Answer.” The song is about her child India’s birth, which occurred only months after the death of McLachlan’s mother. She sings, “When the stars have gone out, yours will still be burning so bright.”
In the song “Stupid,” about the damage love can cause, McLachlan is self-deprecating: “Love has made me a fool,” she sings. And in “World on Fire,” she reflects on the events during and after Sept. 11, 2001, singing, “The world’s on fire and its more than I can handle,” and showing her sympathy for those affected by the attacks.
On her website, www.sarahmclachlan.com, Mclachlan addresses the question of why she waited so long to release another album.
“The answer is that I was just living my life. I lost a mother and I became a mother. Almost a year after having India, I walked away from music for a few months. Taking a break was the best thing I could have done,” she said.
During this break she worked on her music education program, the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach Program, for inner-city children whose school music programs have been cut. Her program is now in its third year.
What makes Afterglow different from her other albums such as Surfacing or Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is that while songs on those albums were written accompanied by guitar, these songs were written to the piano, which is evident by the fact that most songs are built around piano, while the guitar is left to the background. Incorporated in the album is a violin, not heard in her other albums, creating a symphonic feel that gives this album a more classical sound. As well as straying from the themes of love, loneliness and companionship of the past albums, McLachlan discusses personal issues that have recently affected her.
What’s impressive about this album is that after so many years of being away from the recording world, she still hasn’t lost her touch. Her songs (although peppered with more wisdom and profundity than her last album) still have the same voice and melody that we encountered on her previous albums, soft and soothing, showing that she is still in her prime after all these years.
The most prominent single on Afterglow, “Fallen” has been nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal performance. This would be McLachlan’s fourth Grammy since she won her first in 1998 for songs on Surfacing.
Grade: A
