Amarantine - Enya

Enya, which the singer herself describes as a collective, rather than the vocalist herself, is that most rare of things, a musical act that is not only immensely original but also very successful. Sitting in second place only to U2 as Ireland most successful recording artists of all time, Enya have built an empire out of combining beautiful multi-layered vocals with keyboard washes of an almost classical nature. The nature of the music has not changed ...
...the singer jumped ship from her siblings in Clannad and went solo, but its enough to realise that when you are the best in the world at a certain style, particularly as its one that you have more or less created yourself, then why deviate from your chosen path. That's not to say there isn't any variation in her work, the combinations of classical choral vocalisation, pop melody and synthesised keyboard sounds provide a wide variety possibilities ... more

Enya, which the singer herself describes as a collective, rather than the vocalist herself, is that most rare of things, a musical act that is not only immensely original but also very successful. Sitting in second place only to U2 as Ireland most successful recording artists of all time, Enya have built an empire out of combining beautiful multi-layered vocals with keyboard washes of an almost classical nature. The nature of the music has not changed in any major way in the last twenty years since the singer jumped ship from her siblings in Clannad and went solo, but its enough to realise that when you are the best in the world at a certain style, particularly as its one that you have more or less created yourself, then why deviate from your chosen path. That's not to say there isn't any variation in her work, the combinations of classical choral vocalisation, pop melody and synthesised keyboard sounds provide a wide variety possibilities but by and large when you buy an Enya CD you pretty much know what you are going to get. But then you buy music for a whole range of reasons, some bands you want to push the boundaries and others are all about familiarity, and here we are definitely in the second camp. Amarantine, Enya's first full-length album in five years and coincidentally was released just after a similarly eagerly awaited comeback form Kate Bush, an artist held in similar regard by many. Their last release, A Day Without Rain, spent two years on the Billboard charts and as such a new collection of songs was awaited with baited breath. Finally the day has come and the five years without rain has come to an end.

As the first track "Less Than A Pearl" opens, you are grabbed by the voice, or should I say voices as multi-tracked banks of vocal feature highly in this work. Its hard not to use the word ethereal in conjunction with what you are hearing, part ecclesiastical, part otherworldly and not a million miles away from the New World Baroque combinations that Karl Jenkins has been dabbling with recently. The singer, Enya, has become synonymous with the band Enya and really what you hear is the woman herself, but it mustn't be forgotten that there is a backroom team of producer and lyricist that help create this magical sound. What you also realise is that the words themselves are not important her. I am a big fan of the voice being used to deliver a feeling, as an instrument would be used, words are not its main building blocks, emotions and feelings are. Those familiar with Enya will be aware that on many songs in the past Gaelic, Latin and Spanish have been used and even though they are not your first language, that detracts not one bit from the enjoyment. Taking that one step further Nicky and Roma Ryan have created a whole imaginary language that they call Loxian and "Less Than A Pearl" is the first of three songs to be sung in this way. Its almost as if they want to reinforce the idea of the vocals being as important for the way they are presented to the listener as to what they actually say.

The title track follows and with it comes my first minor gripe. As if to go from one extreme to the other, from the new age and almost surreal territory of the opening song, lyrically speaking, here the lyrics are decidedly lack lustre and almost soppy in their sentiment. Instead of the hauntingly beautiful and obscure mesh of vocals that most of the other tracks offer up here we revert to teenage poetry and sickly sweet sentiment. Musically the music does all that is required of it but considering the high standards this and previous albums have set and considering that this is the track that titles the album then I find this a bit lacking. Maybe I need to not think too much about the words, after all my opening statements say as much, but this is a bit distracting. Much better and of a similar nature is "Its In The Rain", cellos drive the song on amid the typical swirl of keyboards and backing vocals and whilst it's typical of a lot of Enya's work has that breathy and ghostly quality that the very name promises. There is a sparseness and folk sensibility that Enya has not produced since the singers days as part of Clannad..

"If I Could Be Where You Are", is a much cleaner song, the instrumental backing is at its barest and the vocals are a simple single high register affair showing that away from all of the multi track affects Enya proves that she is clearly a vocalist if no small talent. Less is defiantly more and here the stripping away of the clever studio tricks leaves us with one of the most glorious and emotive tracks of the album. "The River Sings" has a tribal rhythm built mainly from repetitive backing voices and simple drum beats and immediately evokes an Amazonian village in celebration. And again shouts of Karl Jenkins "Adiemus" work and explains why the doors into the classical music world have recently been opened to Enya's work. The contemporary classical element to the work is looming larger than it ever has and on the back of the singers work with Howard Shore for The Lord of The Rings film score this album is finding an appreciative audience amongst those who would not normally venture into such poppy new age territory.

If "Long Long Journey" feels like a filler of a track compared to the majesty that surrounds it, it should be remembered that this is the sort of album that will be played as background music, its music to wash off the stress of a hard day as you sprawl on the sofa, glass of shiraz in hand, dreaming of distant places and unrealised ambition. Oh, that's just me then, but you know what I'm getting at. Its not music to be analysed too closely, unless of course you are writing a review of it that is. "Sumiregusa" is interesting, not least because it is based on a haiku poem by Basho and translates as Wild Violet. Again it is the minimal approach that pays dividends, the clean vocal sound contrasts with the more distant layered backing. It is a complex tapestry of sounds with a rising and falling dynamic that makes the song unpredictable. The album seems to lose its way a bit at this point falling into very standard formats. "Somebody Said Goodbye" and " Moment Lost" whilst being lovely songs make you feel as if the artists are not trying too hard and have rehashed some old sounds and reworked them, but like I said at the outset, this is not an act that charges off into unbroken territory, so maybe better that than trying something new. The instrumental song "Drifting" reminds us that the singer is not just a fantastic voice but a more than competent piano player and multi instrumentalist and the song is a haunting nocturne, Chopin for the new age. Piano also features highly on "Amid The Falling Snow" and again we are treated to the sumptuous vocals that have become the trademark of an Enya album. We end as we began with the dulcet Loxian tones of "Water Shows The Hidden Heart" and as I haven't used the word ethereal in a while, it is exactly the word you need to hear at this point.

As I said, this is a journey that you are already half familiar with, you know what sort of music you are going to be faced with and by the time you come to the end, you will not be disappointed. Its shares many similarities with all of the preceding albums but has lost a lot of the overtly poppy tones of earlier work such as "Anywhere Is" and leans more in a contemporary classic cum new age category and if there isn't such a genre already existing then its time to make one. Whilst this album seems to have been created in a cloistered solitude uninfluenced by the world around it, it does however, have the confidence in itself to be able to pay homage to the artists past work, thus blending the new with the old, the unfamiliar with the already experienced. A gorgeous album that evokes far away places, past times and dreamscapes, did I mention the word ethereal?
 

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