Afterglow
by Sarah McLachlan

Afterglow by Sarah McLachlan
Year: 2003
Overall rank: 11,945th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
71/100 (from 47 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2003 (217th)
Award Top albums of the 2000s (2,099th)
Award Best albums of all time (11,945th)

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Afterglow [CD] Sarah McLachlan [*READ*, VERY GOOD]
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Sarah McLachlan - Afterglow [2-lp, 45 RPM] Analogue Productions NEW
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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 3174 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 475.

Sarah McLachlan album bestography « Higher ranked (3,966th)
Surfacing
This album (11,945th)
Afterglow
Lower ranked (12,518th) »
Mirrorball

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Afterglow rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 11,945th | 2000s rank: 2,099th | 2003 rank: 217th

Afterglow collection

Afterglow ratings

Average Rating: 
71/100 (from 47 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 47 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 
02/01/2026 20:31 traistboar  Ratings distribution  1,64279/100
 
35/100
 
12/21/2025 06:45 Kingturtle  Ratings distribution  7,57973/100
 
55/100
 
01/03/2025 18:24 fabm0  Ratings distribution  6,86159/100
 
70/100
 
08/31/2024 18:14 Tamthebam  Ratings distribution  22,97469/100
 
65/100
 
03/09/2023 21:50 Igtonumama  Ratings distribution  10,79163/100

Rating metrics: Help 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.

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Afterglow favourites

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Afterglow comments

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Rating:  
60/100
From 12/25/2022 05:21 | #292194
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
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Rating:  
70/100
From 07/15/2016 11:11 | #171336
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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Rating:  
85/100
From 04/27/2015 21:03 | #140418
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
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Rating:  
50/100
From 05/17/2012 21:06 | #42575
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.
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