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Afterglow
11/10/2003 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef
Six years after the consummately successful Surfacing, Sarah McLachlan returns with Afterglow, an album of ethereal folk pop that shows the tuneful singer stuck in her own mold and going nowhere slow. At her best, McLachlan seems to channel the angels, or at least their spirits, conjuring halo-filled pop that rises and falls on the waves of her saintly falsetto. She is certainly enamored of new age pieties, but McLachlan is also a ferociously good songwriter whose lyrics and melodies can result in special moments unequaled by most contemporary songwriters.
Afterglow begins strongly enough with two exquisite tracks: "Fallen" and "World On Fire," songs that could be taken from any of her seven previous albums. She's nothing if not consistent, after all. "Stupid" almost recalls Nirvana-era Tori Amos, a surging song about self-doubt, and of course for McLachlan, inner healing and redemption. But eventually the piano-based songs grow repetitive, while retaining their lush romanticism. After four years away one might have hoped that McLachlan had new epiphanies to share from her time out in the world, but she sounds no stronger, or weaker, for the wear. Ultimately, Afterglow is more aftermath than affirmation.
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