Amarantine (Special Edition) - Enya

Advantages: Soft, gentle ambient music, can listen to anywhere
Disadvantages: Quite similar to every previous Enya album

...a characteristic haunting and mournful sound, and although there are some "lighter" tracks much of Enya's music is tinged with melancholy. ---Amarantine--- Well, any fans of Enya who enjoy their music will like this album, and it will also be appreciated by those who are looking for some relaxing ambient music with a bit of vocalisation, and those who like "Celtic" sounding music. My main criticism is that this is really so much like all Enya's previous stuff. Indeed, even the track listing follows a predictable pattern (e.g. a funereal dirge track followed by a bouncy, faster track etc.). If you sat down with two Enya albums you could probably match similar tracks from each album and produce pairs of, if not identical, then very similar songs. That said, fans of Enya have really come to expect a certain sound and style and perhaps to move away from... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Wintery, mellow, haunting, classic, beguiling
Disadvantages: Er...er... well, none actually.

...Enya is one of the great veterans of the British music industry. She has rarely appeared in the charts (with the exception of a brief stint at No1 with 'Anywhere Is' in the 90s) and yet has been producing music of a consistently exceptional quality for several decades. How can I describe her voice without doing it an injustice? She possesses a haunting, smooth register that immediately relaxes the listener and sounds sufficiently 'other worldly' to transport you away from the hum-drum world in which we live. If you have never heard Enya before, I would definitely recommend buying this CD first as it is clearly the best; although I own all of her music, it is evident that she has improved with age and Amarantine represents something of a tour de force. The tracks swing wildly from the soaring, majestic sound of the first song (Less than... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: hauntingly beautiful music
Disadvantages: none

...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... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful