Sarah McLachlan - Afterglow Live (2004)

Apart from a director whose relationship with his subject seems skittish--there's a shyness about the DVD, as though the camera was afraid to linger on its subject too long--and the CD's lamentable incompatibility with iPods, "Afterglow Live" leaves little to nitpick over. Nearly two dozen songs, zigzagging across Afterglow, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, and Surfacing, solidify McLachlan's reputation as a peerless performer on the DVD; the careful attention she layers over these already full-bodied, melodic songs gives each additional shape, as if she were singing them for the first time, and her easy magnetism in front of a mic draws her wholly rapt audience in close enough to feel her guitar strings vibrate. The same likable star quality carries over to the CD, a 15-song sampler culled from the DVD's 2004 Toronto concert. Though fans of less weighty McLachlan material may miss the comparative wispiness of confections like "Ice Cream," her full-throated pourings-on for "Building a Mystery," "Angel," and "Train Wreck," among others, will keep Afterglow Live's bulb burning brightly for years to come. -Tammy La Gorce