June 2, 2026
Day 2 of the best tracks off my 15 foundational albums!!!
I had grown up a child of the Radio. I had heard Sarah McLachlan obviously with tracks like Angel, Building a Mystery, Adia and the like. And I liked them, but I didn't at that young age know what it was to truly be a fan. Fast forward to my Sophomore year of High School and I found out quickly what it was to be a fan.
I had lost my dad the year before and was going through a tumultuous period where I was being forced to move across country to a place where I knew I was not going to fit in AT ALL. It was a rough period. During this period I was admitted to Kosairs Childrens Hospital in Louisville Kentucky where we were living at the time before the move for a Suicide Attempt. During my 3 month stay my only source of entertainment was the radio and Afterglow was in heavy rotation on our local station. Chiefly Fallen which was a fantastic track, as were most of the tracks on the album. When I got out and we arrived in Texas one of the first things I did was get Afterglow. And I was drawn to one particular song above all the others. Train Wreck.
I saw myself heavily in this song. "Cause I'm a train wreck waiting to happen, waiting for someone to come pick me up off the tracks". It is as if the song was penned for precisely what I was going through at the time. I was 14 going on 15 and I was struggling with the loss of my dad, with being alone while all my peers were dating left right and center and I just desperately wanted love.
Outside of this track, the entire album with maybe one exception, is a start to finish banger. A timeless album that even 20 years later is still alongside Melissa Etheridge's Lucky, in my heavy rotation.