Afterglow
by Sarah McLachlan
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Sarah McLachlan bestography
Afterglow is ranked 3rd best out of 19 albums by Sarah McLachlan on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Sarah McLachlan is Fumbling Towards Ecstasy which is ranked number 3255 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 467.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Afterglow on YouTube
Afterglow track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 75 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Afterglow rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | fabm0 | List Zone 31 America Canada | 90/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 96 Music Albums of 2003 | 90/96 | 0 |
| 2026 | 100IDream | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 68/100 | 32 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 2401-2500 | 25/100 | - |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Platinum Zone 31 America Canada | 76/100 | - |
| 2026 | stevengnz | Top 100 Music Albums of 2003 | 61/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Platinum year 2003 | 46/100 | - |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top 100 Music Albums of 2003 | 88/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | List 2003 | 48/100 | - |
| 2026 | Romanelli | Top 60 Music Albums of 2003 | 48/60 | 1 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 44 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 127 | |||
Afterglow collection
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Afterglow ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 47 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 02/01/2026 20:31 | traistboar | 1,792 | 79/100 |
| ! | 12/21/2025 06:45 |  Kingturtle | 7,579 | 73/100 |
| ! | 01/03/2025 18:24 | fabm0 | 7,009 | 58/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 70.7/100, a mean average of 69.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 70.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.6.
Afterglow favourites
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Afterglow forum mentions
Romanelli 03/20/2025 22:37 in The Romanelli Music Diary: The Milk Of Human Kindness Romanelli 03/09/2020 19:27 in What Song Are You Listening To Right Now?Afterglow comments
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Sarah McLachlan's 2003 album "Afterglow" has been criticized by some for lacking good songs. People who feel this way should give album a second chance, because most of the songs are really great and the album as a whole is as least as good as her best.
First impression may be that the songs are generally less catchy and harder to get into, compared to her previous albums. Personally I found both "Fallen" and "Push" very good and cacthy from first listen, while other songs like the waltzy "Time" and the quiet and beautiful "Answer" took a little more time for me to realize how great songs they are.
The album is ,at times, lyrically slightly disillusioned and dark, but on the other hand it shows a strong belief in love. Musically it's a quiet and mature album; like always well-produced.
https://www.angelfire.com/nv/Badfinger/BANDsarahmclachlan.html
lightmyway TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/17/2012 21:06 | #42575 | TOP COMMENT
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There's only a certain amount of time you can wait for an album and still be excited about it. In 1998, 1999, 2000, sure, I really was really stoked on the idea of another Sarah McLachlan album. But in 2003, not so much. Either way, when this finally came out I picked it up and it's actually okay, kind of the same thing as Surfacing. It's not the leap forward you'd expect though.
Eastwood 04/27/2015 21:03 | #140418 | TOP COMMENT
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Good album. Best 10 songs average is 83,0/100 and the album can get good 85/100. Best songs are "Fallen", "World on fire", "Stupid" and "Train wreck" all good 85/100. All other songs average/only just good 75-80/100.
Genre: Singer/Songwriter, Pop
Good album but certainly not in the same class as, solace, and, fumbling towards ecstasy, or even, surfacing. To be honest, it's almost Sarah Mclachlan by numbers, but it's still very enjoyable though.
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