Surfacing Sarah Mclachlan

Surfacing is the fourth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. Surfacing was released in July 1997, coinciding with the start of McLachlan's Lilith Fair tour. The album was a commercial success worldwide, reached the top position on the Canadian RPM 100 Albums chart and number two on the US Billboard 200. Critical reviews were mixed; some of the more positive reviews praised the songwriting, while the album's detractors criticized it as banal and slow. The album spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-five hits, "Adia" and "Angel", the top-15 hit "Building a Mystery", and the top-30 hit "Sweet Surrender".

During the mid-'90s, Sarah McLachlan was a near-ubiquitous presence in pop music, establishing adult alternative pop radio with 1994's Fumbling Toward Ecstasy and 1997's Surfacing and spearheading the popular Lilith Fair touring festival, but once the last Lilith wound up in 1999, she retreated from the spotlight, had a baby, and seemingly retired from music. Four years later, she made a typically subdued return with Afterglow, her first album in six years. Not much has changed in the time she was away. Afterglow is firmly within the McLachlan signature sound – a softly tuneful, mildly atmospheric blend of classic singer/songwriterism and a touch of vaguely dreamy alternative pop, all shined and immaculately produced by Pierre Marchand.

Surfacing is the fourth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. Surfacing was released in July 1997, coinciding with the start of McLachlan's Lilith Fair tour. The album was a commercial success worldwide, reached the top position on the Canadian RPM 100 Albums chart and number two on the US Billboard 200. Critical reviews were mixed; some of the more positive reviews praised the songwriting, while the album's detractors criticized it as banal and slow. The album spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-five hits, "Adia" and "Angel", the top-15 hit "Building a Mystery", and the top-30 hit "Sweet Surrender".

Sarah McLachlan's 1999 Mirrorball, her first ever live album, showed off the singer in the prime of career, when her popularity both as an artist and as the organizer of Lilith Fair had made her a star. And while that record was good, and exposed the talents of McLachlan's powerful, clear voice and the strength of her band, it generally stuck to her most famous songs, especially those off her then most recent album, Surfacing.

Since her debut in 1988, Sarah McLachlan's atmospheric folk-pop has gained a devoted following not only in her native Canada, where she established star status with her first album, but also in the U.S. and U.K. The following two decades saw her grow both as a musician and songwriter, continually redefining herself and emerging as a major voice in the growing adult alternative pop format. She also founded Lilith Fair, a concert tour that helped usher other female songwriters into the mainstream during the late '90s, while maintaining her own presence on the charts.