Omg, I had to listen to 8 & 5 soooo many times because they're my mother's favourites, haha. Front to back, every song wraps you up, pulls you in, and takes you on a journey through “.the length of a lifetime through history, through emotions and journeys across great oceans.” 5/5 All the subtle experimentation and growth in Enya's sound throughout several decades, all coalescing in perfect harmony to form an actual perfect album. Setting aside disbelief that this release marked 30 years since she hit the big leagues, and considering all the works she'd released prior, Dark Sky Island is in a league of its own. *Fun lil' piece of trivia: This album was recorded around the same time as Enya's “May It Be” and “The Council of Elrond Assembles” (both for the LOTR soundtrack).Įnya's magnum opus. Plus, pretty much every track is amazing. This album drags just the tiniest little bit near the middle, but its short length (37 mins!) keeps it from losing its charm. The addition of strings to the formula is a bold choice that compliments an already interesting approach to songwriting. 4.1/5Ī Day Without Rain is a bit more happening than Memory of Trees, but still considerably mellow, with even more of a focus on choral arrangements built to knock the socks off. The result is a deep, relaxing album that flows well from front to back. The tunes are still thick, but their busy-ness has been scaled back a smidge, and the traditional Gaelic/Irish/Celtic influences are toned down, more effectively blended compared to the debut. Despite containing certified club banger “Orinoco Flow,” this album is a much more chilled-out affair than its predecessor. Here, Enya taps into sentimental beauty and emotional catharsis in a way that she simply had not yet achieved on a cohesive, album-level before. Enya seems slightly more comfortable expressing herself while Memory of Trees has less highlights than Watermark and Shepherd Moons, the music has grown into itself and, as a whole, flows from its source more naturally. The layered vocals are completely entrancing on this album, in particular. This change is reflected in the album's musical content as well, which sees Enya at her most purposeful and focused to date. Notably, the cover art breaks from previous styles, with bold colors, defined lines and edges.
*Fun lil' piece of trivia: Inspired by Tolkien's Elvish language, Enya's lyricist (Roma Ryan) created a fictional language for this album called “Loxian,” which Enya sings in at various points.įollow-up to Shepherd Moons. Utterly gorgeous, but lacking the highlights of its predecessor, Amarantine nonetheless manages to hold the attention and sneak in a few new tricks as well. Similar to the Watermark – Shepherd Moons phenomenon, Enya delivers a follow-up album nearly identical to A Day Without Rain. So let the tears go, they will flow away” “You know love may sometimes make you cry That being said, it houses a good handful of classic Enya tracks, “Caribbean Blue” being one of the highlights. There's nothing wrong with that, and it's a great album, but in failing to reach the heights of its predecessor, Shepherd Moons can become a little bit more of an 'in one ear, out the other' album experience. Given the critical and commercial success of Watermark, it makes sense that Enya might stay in her comfort zone for the follow-up, but this album truly does nothing that Watermark didn't do. *Fun little piece of trivia: The Fugees' tune “Ready or Not” is built around a sample of “Boadicea” What's here is beautiful, and impressive, but it lacks the unique identity that her subsequent albums would achieve. In other words, it's evident that Enya is still forming her sound.
The tune tunes themselves don't quiiite come together either, for the most part. This album is slightly more meandering for Enya, with several o-kay 1.5 minute interludes in the tracklist. I want to give its flaws a pass, since it's basically a shorter version of the score she originally wrote for a BBC documentary, but just so I'm being thorough on the listening side of things. Coupled with an overwhelming christmas aesthetic that only sometimes succeeds, Enya's penultimate release is relegated to the bottom of this ranking. Of her records that could be accused of going through the motions, And Winter Came. This album gets last place, not because it's a bad album (Enya doesn't make those), but because it's just not as good as the rest. Below are the findings.read away, read away, read away Only familiar with a handful of her albums, but intent on an informed and based Enya ranking, I set out on a chronological discog run. Enya's music played a significant role in my childhood, and has since then proved to be an important musical and emotional anchor in my adult life.
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