Afterglow (Sarah McLachlan album)

Afterglow
Studio album by Sarah McLachlan
Released	4 November 2003
Recorded	2002-2003
Genre	Pop
Label	Nettwerk (Canada), Arista
Producer	Pierre Marchand
Sarah McLachlan chronology
Surfacing (1997) Afterglow (2003) Wintersong (2006)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Blender	[2]
E! Online	(B-)[3]
Entertainment Weekly	(B-)[4]
Mojo	[5]
Q Magazine	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
Stylus Magazine	(F)[8]

Afterglow is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. Released on November 4, 2003, it was her first album of new material in six years, after the success of Surfacing and the Lilith Fair festival. Following those successes, McLachlan took a few years furlough to start a family with her husband and drummer, Ashwin Sood. Their daughter, India Ann Sushill Sood, was born in 2002.

She also did a lot of work with the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach program, funding music lessons for disadvantaged children.

Unlike past albums where she went to an isolated cottage to write the songs, she wrote the songs for Afterglow in her family home mainly before the birth of her child. She wrote the songs entirely on piano, which is also a departure from her previous albums which she wrote on guitar. Longtime collaborator Pierre Marchand produced the album. McLachlan wrote eight of the 10 songs herself and co-wrote the other two with Marchand.

The song "Answer" was featured in the 2007 movie The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster. It has also been used in television commercials for the ASPCA, with McLachlan herself appearing in person.

Chart success and award nominations

Afterglow was released on November 4, 2003 and was a success in North America, reaching number two on the Billboard 200, selling 361,000 copies in its first week of release and number one on the Canadian charts.^[9] It also has reached #33 in the UK (McLachlan's biggest success there thus far) and the top 50 in Australia in 2004. The first single, "Fallen", reached the top ten on the Adult Top 40 Billboard charts and a remix reached top ten in the United States dance charts. A second single, "Stupid" was released in March of 2004.

McLachlan was nominated in five Juno Award categories in Canada, including Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year for Afterglow, and Songwriter of the Year for the songs on the album. The awards were announced on April 4, 2004. The album was also nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Vocal Album field in 2005.

Although not as massive a success overall as Surfacing, Afterglow managed to sell over 2,500,000 units in the U.S. and went two times platinum. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 5 million copies, mainly in United States, Canada and United Kingdom.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Fallen"	Sarah McLachlan	3:47
2.	"World on Fire"	McLachlan, Pierre Marchand	4:22
3.	"Stupid"	McLachlan	3:24
4.	"Drifting"	McLachlan	3:23
5.	"Train Wreck"	McLachlan	4:36
6.	"Push"	McLachlan	3:56
7.	"Answer"	McLachlan	3:58
8.	"Time"	McLachlan	4:07
9.	"Perfect Girl"	McLachlan, Marchand	4:43
10.	"Dirty Little Secret"	McLachlan	3:56

Personnel

• Sarah McLachlan: Vocals, Electric Guitar, Piano, Rhodes Piano, Keyboards
• Pierre Marchand: Guitar, Bass, Piano, Keyboards, Synthesizer Bass
• Bill Dillon: Guitar, Guitorgan, Church Organ
• Michael Chaves: Guitar
• Michel Pepin: Guitar
• Sean Ashby: Guitar
• Yves Desrosiers: Guitar
• Mark Jowett: Guitar
• Ethan Johns: Guitar
• Tony Levin: Bass
• Daryl Johnson: Bass
• Jim Creeggan: Acoustic Bass
• David Kershaw: Hammond Organ
• Jorane: Cello, Background Vocals, Vocal Treatments
• Ashwin Sood: Drums, Percussion, Loops, Keyboard Bass
• Jerry Marotta: Percussion

Album Charts

Chart	Peak position	Certification	Sales/shipments
Australian Albums Chart[10]	22	Gold	35,000[11]
Austrian Albums Chart[12]	72
Belgian Flanders Albums Chart[13]	18
Belgian Wallonia Albums Chart[14]	23
Canadian Albums Chart[15]	1	5x platinum	500,000[16]
Danish Albums Chart[17]	33
Dutch Albums Chart[18]	23
French Albums Chart[19]	65
German Albums Chart[20]	56
New Zealand Albums Chart[21]	30
Norwegian Albums Chart[22]	14
Swedish Albums Chart[23]	20
Swiss Albums Chart[24]	19
UK Albums Chart[25]	33	Gold	100,000[26]
U.S. Billboard 200[27]	2	2x platinum	2,500,000[28]

References

1. ^ Allmusic review
2. ^ Blender review
3. ^ E! Online review
4. ^ Entertainment Weekly review
5. ^ Mojo review
6. ^ Q Magazine review
7. ^ Rolling Stone review
8. ^ Stylus Magazine review
9. ^ Caulfield, Keith. "Drake Debuts At No. 1 on Billboard 200". billboard.com. June 23, 2010.
10. ^ Australian Albums Chart
11. ^ ARIA
12. ^ Austrian Albums Chart
13. ^ Belgian Flandres Albums Chart
14. ^ Belgian Wallonia Albums Chart
15. ^ Canadian Albums Chart
16. ^ CRIA
17. ^ Danish Albums Chart
18. ^ Dutch Albums Chart
19. ^ French Albums Chart^{[dead link]}
20. ^ German Albums Chart
21. ^ New Zealand Albums Chart
22. ^ Norwegian Albums Chart
23. ^ Swedish Albums Chart
24. ^ Swiss Albums Chart
25. ^ UK Albums Chart
26. ^ BPI
27. ^ U.S. Albums Chart
28. ^ "Gold & Platinum - July 26, 2010". RIAA. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=2&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=&artist=sarah%20mc%20lachlan&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2009&sort=Artist&perPage=25. Retrieved 2010-07-26.