Buy Now
Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya
(more) »rank: 263by: Enya
: essential recording:New Age diva Enya first became widely known when her 1988 album Watermark sold 4 million copies and launched the single 'Orinoco Flow.' Her follow-up, Shepherd Moons, was even more successful, selling over 10 million copies despite its slightly lower grade of ethereal enchantment. In 1997 she released Paint the Sky with Stars, an assortment of her best work from these two early albums plus gems from 1995's The Memory of Trees and the soundtrack to the BBC series The Celts. The most melodic and atmospheric examples ...
Buy Now
A Day Without Rain
(more) »rank: 821by: Enya
: :As each new Enya release has washed over all who have ears to hear, as each heaven-touched work leaves admirers sitting speechless in slack-jawed wonder, questions eventually come to mind: Might her layered, choral-like approach gradually become predictable or stale? Will she ever exhaust her deep reservoir of soul-stirring ideas? Remarkably, A Day Without Rain, Enya's fourth release since her 1988 breakthrough, Watermark, establishes new artistic heights for the gifted Irish vocalist and keyboardist. The project, polished and refined over a five-year period in the company of longtime collaborators ...
Buy Now
Shepherd Moons
(more) »rank: 1000by: Enya
: essential recording:The success of her first international hit, Watermark, confirmed Enya as less a singer or songwriter than a sonic architect: working with producer Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan, the classically-trained pianist built vaulting cathedrals of sound, framed by luminous piano, shimmering synthesizer orchestrations, and, above all, the seemingly infinite layers of vocal harmonies she plied on every song. The deeply romantic Celtic pop on its 1991 successor, Shepherd Moons, sustains the same spectrum of hushed reverie and surging, rhapsodic releases, as well as its ...
Buy Now
Watermark
(more) »rank: 715by: Enya
: essential recording:Enya's 1988 recording Watermark achieved landmark success with her groundbreaking use of multi-tracking technology to fuse new age and Celtic themes and instrumentation. The meticulous production defines her sound and achieves continuity even while weaving together tender ballads, piano pieces, massively layered vocal harmonies, and symphonic synthesizer movements. Although Enya's pristine voice isn't especially strong, her lead vocals possess a vulnerability that reflects the lyrics' sense of personal searching. From the ubiquitous, frothy single 'Orinoco Flow' (which was used to hawk Crystal Light on TV) to the ...
Buy Now
Amarantine
(more) »rank: 1905by: Enya
:Album Description:The first album in five years from Enya follows the biggest-selling album of her illustrious career, the six-times platinum A Day Without Rain, which transcended all commercial expectations. Having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, Enya is one of the most successful female artists of all time and second only to U2 as the biggest selling Irish artist in history. :From the first blanket of choral voices awash in reverb, Amarantine is instantly recognizable as a product of Enya, the Irish chanteuse who has created a genre ...
Buy Now
The Memory of Trees
(more) »rank: 916by: Enya
: :To many people, Enya has become synonymous with new age music. Her haunting voice, clear and crisp above richly woven musical arrangements and adaptations, represents some of the best in the genre. Her performances on The Memory of Trees justify the Celtic songster's reputation. Songs like 'China Roses' and 'Hope Has a Place' complement the simple elegance of traditional folk music with luxuriantly layered instrumentation and highly crafted studio production. The ultimate effect is dazzling, to be sure. Whether she sings in English, Gaelic, or Latin, Enya conveys a ...
Buy Now
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(more) »rank: 2593from: Reprise / Wea
: :Score composer Howard Shore has informed this first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with his distinctly modern sensibilities. Revolving loosely around a brief, heroic brass theme, this epic is infused with a powerful rhythmic thrust and a musical range that encompasses centuries (from the Renaissance pastoralism of 'Concerning Hobbits' to the fiery, Prokofiev-influenced drama of 'A Knife in the Dark'). Key to the score's sense of mystery and magical place are the rich choral passages that are interspersed throughout, some so ominously gothic they make The ...
Buy Now
Odyssey
(more) »rank: 1860by: Hayley Westenra
:Album Description:Hayley Westenra's new album Odyssey was always going to be a different proposition to Pure, the record-breaking 2003 collection which marked her international debut. A lot has happened to the young New Zealander over the past two or three years--and those changes are clearly reflected by a record which encapsulates her growth from a budding teenage prodigy into a mature young woman.Now, at 18, Hayley is ready to show the world how much she has grown up, both as an artist and as an individual. Fans of Pure ...
Buy Now
The Celts
(more) »rank: 6020by: Enya
: :Born Eithne Ni Bhraonain, this classically-trained pianist was kid sister in the musical family that became Clannad, joining the Irish band in 1979 but dropping out amicably three years later to pursue her own muse. This music, produced in the mid-'80s as the soundtrack to a BBC series, was released as her debut in 1987 and promptly ignored--yet its mix of atmospheric soundscapes and Enya's lush, layered vocals, sung in both English and Gaelic, is the template for her subsequent global hits, beginning with Watermark the following year. --Sam ...
Buy Now
Pure Moods, Vol. I
(more) »rank: 4052by: Various Artists, Adiemus, Angelo Badalamenti, David A. Stewart, David Byrne, Deep Forest, Enigma, Ennio Morricone, Enya, Eight Others
: :New Age music, ambient electronica, and spiritualized hip-hop received their first major, K-Tel-like treatment in 1996 when Virgin Records assembled Pure Moods. The 'As Seen on TV' compilation quickly became a hot seller, and it would be nice to think that its popularity has as much to do with the music as the marketing. To be sure, Pure Moods offers genre hits aplenty: from Enya's 'Orinoco Flow' to 'Sadness' from Enigma; from a dance mix of the 'X-Files Theme' to edits of vintage electronica from Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells) ...
