Enya
Amarantine

THE REVIEW

TAVOR FOR YOUR EARS. I just can't swallow this one... It's been 15 years (maybe a few less) that Enya keeps giving us albums that are carbon copies of one another. But I wonder: who the hell buys these honeyed and sugary albums, like medieval folk-ambient from the soundtrack of a Scottish period film? I can imagine hordes of stressed young housewives in a romantic mood whose man doesn't give them anymore, or women managers coming home with terrible headaches, saying "come on, (very Milanese, in fact) let's put on Enya, that relaxes me..." This is indeed Enya's strategy: listen to me, you'll be calm, I won't shake you, no jolts, no minor chords, no drum rolls, you just sit there quietly in your armchair, I’ll take care of relaxing you. A true and authentic "Sound Tavor"... to be taken once a year via stereo. And unfortunately, some believe it and do it seriously, because otherwise, the great success of this pallid little English girl with the same photoshopped face on the cover forever wouldn't be explained, as if time never passed, as if nothing ever passed. The proof? You take one of the early albums and put it in your CD player... well? Everything is as it was, nothing new, nothing has changed, everything is similar, a chord changes, in one track there are distant bell sounds, in another the rhythm is a tiny bit more sustained and she sings as if she were the fourth shepherdess of Medjugorje with the fourth secret of Fatima on artistic and economic longevity. In short, an insipid and downright sticky album due to how much molasses oozes from every track. An album that, however, "works damn well" on HER audience, on a whole category of people who want a pseudo-soundtrack from music to "unplug" and enjoy a "brain in neutral" without thoughts, without effort, without the slightest perceptual or interpretive involvement. Downright nauseating.  P. S. goodbye and I'm off like a few million Italians on "vacation" to stress in traffic on the highway... oh my, what music should I bring in my car radio to kill time? Oh no... I won't fall for it, I'd prefer an Eno DOC, PanAmerican, Devendra Banhart, or any other artist but Enya, no chance?!