Six years between albums is a long time, but it's not like Sarah McLachlan was on vacation.
During the interim the Vancouver-based songstress, who turns 36 next month, got married, finished touring for both "Surfacing" and Lilith Fair, lost her mother to cancer and gave birth to her daughter shortly thereafter.
With all that on her plate, it's no wonder the recording of her new album "Afterglow" took so long.
The musical world McLachlan returned to had also experienced dramatic changes, with the demise of girl and boy bands and the industry-wide tailspin of record sales.
So was McLachlan at all concerned about launching a long-overdue record in this unstable environment?
"No," is the new mother's emphatic reply. "Obviously I'm going to lose a number of fans, because the longer you're gone the more people forget about you who weren't rabid fans.
"But most of my rabid fans absolutely would go out and buy my record, because they're the same kind of music fans I am... the people I love I'll go out and buy their record as soon as it comes out without waiting to hear it on the radio, or waiting to hear from other people whether it's any good."
Judging from "Afterglow's" first seven weeks on the charts, it's like McLachlan never left. The new album debuted at No. 1 and has continued to rack up sales, already selling 280,100 copies in Canada. That's an even better start than "Surfacing," which has sold more than a million copies in this country alone.
"Afterglow" is also faring well south of the border, where it debuted in second on the Billboard music charts, selling more than 360,000 in its first week. That kind of clout is normally reserved for Canadian music icons like Celine Dion or Shania Twain.
While admitting to being pleasantly surprised by "Afterglow's" success, McLachlan feels it's deserved.
"I've worked really really hard to promote it and put it out there for everybody to see," she says while performing her latest round of media interviews poolside with her 20-month-old daughter, India, at a swanky Los Angeles hotel. "The concern more was that the longer I'm out of the market, the more work I'd have to do to get back into it."
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