Sarah McLachlan AFTERGLOW (Arista)

Sarah McLachlan ended the ’90s having launched the triumphant Lilith Fair and released a trio of artistically ambitious and commercially successful discs. Now, after a five-year hiatus, expectations are high for Afterglow. Unfortunately, it’s a disc that lacks the confessional intensity and emotional sincerity of her previous work. As in the past, she’s surrounded herself with an eclectic array of capable backing musicians, including her husband, drummer Ashwin Sood. But as fine as the individual performances on Afterglow are, the overall feel of the songs is sluggish and murky. McLachlan spends most of the disc treading through the same lush electro-organic landscapes that defined her sound early on; this time, however, the melodies are a little flat, and the choruses never quite make it into effective hooks. McLachlan’s beautiful voice remains an effective centerpiece whether she’s expressing bewilderment in "World’s on Fire," melancholy and loss in "Fallen," or the romantic longing in "Trainwreck." But even that can’t save the trite sentiments of a retread like "Dirty Little Secret," which sounds like nothing more than a weak reworking of "Angel" from 1997’s Surfacing.