In my opinion, Sarah McLachlan is at her best with her mid-tempo material. On this album, there are four songs that I like a lot: “Fallen”, “World on Fire”, “Stupid”, and “Train Wreck”. Sarah’s piano and Ashwin Sood’s gentle drumming come together in a beautiful melodic blend. Unfortunately, the rest of the album didn’t move me at all. It’s slow, deliberately un-catchy, and too absorbed with its own emotional outpourings. On the one hand, any album with more than three decent tracks is above average in my mind. On the other, Sarah McLachlan can do so much better. Afterglow has little of the creativity so evident on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, and it lacks the slick focus and drive of Surfacing. So only three stars here.