Surfacing is the fourth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, released on 15 July 1997.

Work on the follow-up was scheduled to begin in April of that year, but McLachlan found herself mentally exhausted at the time, later claiming that she had personally wanted Fumbling Towards Ecstasy to be her final record.

"[2] It was inspired by articles that she read in Rolling Stone about musicians who turned to heroin to cope with the pressures of the music industry and subsequently overdosed.

[2][3] She said that she identified with the feelings that might lead someone to use heroin: "I've been in that place where you're so fucked up and you're so lost that you don't know who you are anymore, and you're miserable—and here's this escape route.

"[3] Another song that she found easy to write was "Building a Mystery", co-written with her regular collaborator, Canadian musician and producer Pierre Marchand.

[11] It peaked at number three on both the Canadian Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100, also reaching the top 20 in the UK, her first top-20 hit outside of North America.

[15] Writing for The New York Times, Sia Michel called the album "lushly atmospheric" but also ambivalent.

Michel also noted certain old-fashioned ideas in the album, particularly in "Sweet Surrender", that contrast with the work of contemporaries such as Ani DiFranco and PJ Harvey.

"[9] Elysa Gardner of Los Angeles Times said it "showcases her considerable strengths—a shimmering soprano voice and a knack for intelligent, emotionally forthright lyrics but also suffers from a lack of compelling craftsmanship and textural daring.

"[22] A reviewer for Rolling Stone criticized the album's slow tempo, commenting that "if you want a piece of her nirvana, you have to go along at her protracted, glacial pace."

[23] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine compared it unfavorably to McLachlan's previous album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.

He also noted that the timing of the release, coinciding with the launch of Lilith Fair and the publicity that McLachlan received from that, helped sales of the album.

[26][27][28] After a visit to the White House in November 1997, Lewinsky wrote that she "noticed you (President Clinton) had the new Sarah McLachlan CD" and that "whenever I listen to song No.

[31] In 1999, she received one more nomination for the album, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Adia"); she lost to Celine Dion.