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Rating: Looking at her on album covers or in other rare images, with her porcelain skin and her improbable trailing dresses, she seems like a woman from a long-past era, that of the mysterious and legendary Celts. However, she hails from a remote Irish county, and it was there that she began cutting her teeth with Clannad, a historic traditional music group. Too talented even for the capable Clannad, she found her niche in a very unique musical cocktail, which combines the vitality of ethnic music, not only Celtic, with the rarefied new age atmospheres. A sound full of scholarly references, particularly to sacred music and madrigals of the 1500s and 1600s (Monteverdi), but paired with sweet melodies, generally approachable and thus popular. This at least partly explains how this serious musician, capable of composing inspired motifs of ancient taste and playing all the instruments on her records, could compete in terms of sales with the shrieks of Madonnas, Spice Girls, and other chart phenomena.
It's a pity we will never hear her live, as she believes it impossible to reproduce on stage the elaborate fusion of suggestions from her ancient and modern instruments that we can enjoy on record. "Watermark," her masterpiece, is a classic example of a seminal album: Enya would attempt to recreate it three times, and the remarkable thing is that on the first attempt, "Shepherd Moons," the miracle was repeated, an event not rare in the musical field (splendid examples of "clones" come to mind, like "In The Wake of Poseidon" by King Crimson). From the clarity of the initial piano piece "Watermark," worthy of certain brief classical piano pieces (listen to late Brahms to believe it), you can tell that something good is coming: real music, not noise! Similar piano interludes will return in this and subsequent albums, as delightful reflective pauses. Because there's also a more rhythmic Enya, like in "Storms In Africa," a successful incursion into Peter Gabriel territory, that of blending Western melodies with African tribal percussion. Enya lacks nothing: beyond the already seen qualities, she also possesses a superb contralto voice, very classical, ideal for her music.
"On Your Shore" reduces the instrumentation to a discreet background precisely to emphasize this splendid voice, which shines in an airy melody of typical Celtic taste, as also in "Exile," where it alternates with a magical flute. In "Evening Falls," Enya is accompanied by a moving adagio for organ and strings. But the most absolute ecstasy is reached in "The Long Ships": here the intertwining of Enya's divine warbles, the choirs, and the instrumental base is practically perfect, and even the melody suggests journeys towards the unknown: simply a dream. "Cursum Perficio," with its Latin text and relentless Carmina Burana-style crescendo, has the power to evoke the mystery and darkness of the catacombs.
The album's great success was "Orinoco Flow," a very simple motif, you might say a nursery rhyme, but with refined interplay between the vocalizations and electronic keyboards that make it a small masterpiece. "Na Laetha Geal M'Oige," as the Gaelic title says, is a return to tradition, where the "uillean pipes," a type of Irish bagpipe, alternate with the true instrument that is Enya's voice. The harmony is total, nothing is out of place: with an album like this, one can only regret that it eventually ends. Luckily, there will be further installments.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Cursum Perficio (04:09)
Cursum Perficio
Cursum Perficio
Cursum Perficio
Cursum Perficio
Cursum Perficio
Verbum sapiento, eo plus cupiunt
Verbum sapiento, eo plus cupiunt
Quo Plus habent, eo plus cupiunt
Verbum sapiento, eo plus cupiunt
Quo Plus habent, eo plus cupiunt
Post nubila, Phoebus
Post nubila, Phoebus
Post nubila, Phoebus
Quo Plus habent, eo plus cupiunt
Quo Plus habent, eo plus cupiunt
Quo Plus habent, eo plus cupiunt
Post nubila, Phoebus
Post nubila, Phoebus
Post nubila, Phoebus
Post nubila, Phoebus
Post nubila, Phoebus
Post nubila, Phoebus
Iternum
Iternum
Iternum
03 On Your Shore (04:00)
Strange how
My heart beats
To find myself upon your shore.
Strange how
I still feel
My loss of comfort gone before.
Cool waves wash over
And drift away with dreams of youth
So time is stolen
I cannot hold you long enough.
And so
This is where I should be now
Days and nights falling by
Days and nights falling by me.
I know
Of a dream I should be holding
Days and nights falling by
Days and nights falling by me.
Soft blue horizons
Reach far into my childhood days
As you are rising
To bring me my forgotten ways.
Strange how I falter
To find I'm standing in deep water
Strange how
My heart beats
To find I'm standing on your shore.
04 Storms in Africa (04:04)
Cá fhad é ó
Siúil tríd na stoirmeacha.
Dul tríd na stoirmeacha.
Cá fhad é ó
An tús don stoirm.
Cá fhad é ó
An tús go deiradh.
Tóg do Chroí.
Siúil tríd na stoirmeacha.
Tóg do chroísa.
Dul tríd na stoirmeacha.
Turas mór.
Tor tríd na Stoirmeacha.
Turas fada.
Amharc tríd na Stoirmeacha.
05 Exile (04:21)
Cold as the northern winds,
in December mornings.
Cold is the cry that rings,
from this far distant shore.
Winter has come too late.
Too close beside me.
How can I chase away
all these fears deep inside?
I'll wait the signs to come.
I'll find a way.
I will wait the time to come.
I'll find a way home.
My light shall be the moon
and my path - the ocean.
My guide - the morning star,
as I sail home to you.
I'll wait the signs to come.
I'll find a way.
I will wait the time to come.
I'll find a way home.
Who then can warm my soul?
Who can quell my passion?
Out of these dreams - a boat.
I will sail home to you.
07 Orinoco Flow (04:26)
Let me sail, let me sail,
let the Orinoco Flow,
let me reach, let me beach
on the shores of Tripoli.
Let me sail, let me sail,
let me crash upon your shore,
let me reach, let me beach
far beyond the Yellow Sea.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
From Bissau to Palau - in the shade of Avalon,
from Fiji to Tiree and the Isles of Ebony,
from Peru to Cebu feel the power of Babylon,
from Bali to Cali - far beneath the Coral Sea.
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, up, adieu. Ooh.
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, up, adieu. Ooh.
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, up, adieu. Aah...
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
From the North to the South, Ebudae into Khartoum,
from the deep sea of Clouds to the island of the moon,
carry me on the waves to the lands I've never been,
carry me on the waves to the lands I've never seen.
We can sail, we can sail with the Orinoco Flow,
we can sail, we can sail.
(sail away, sail away, sail away)
We can steer, we can near
with Rob Dickins at the wheel,
we can sigh, say goodbye Ross and his dependencies
we can sail, we can sail
(sail away, sail away, sail away)
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
Sail away, sail away, sail away.
10 The Longships (03:38)
Hi-ri-u
Ho-ro-ho
Ho-ri-u
Him-o-ro-ho
Hoireann is oro
Tá muid beo
Him oro ho
Go Deo na ndeor
11 Na Laetha Geal M'Óige (03:54)
Ag amharc trí m'óige
Is mé bhí sámh
Gan eolas marbh
Bhí mé óg san am.
Anois táim buartha
'S fad ar shiúl an lá
Ochón is ochón ó
Na laetha geal m'óige
Bhí siad lán de dhóchas
An bealach mór a bhí romhan anonn
Bhí sé i ndán domh gombeinn, slán, slán.
[Translation]
Looking back at my youth
I was content
Without dead knowledge
I was young, without time
Now I'm sorrowful
Those days are long past
Sadness and loss
The great days of my youth
They were full of expectation
The great journey that was before me then
Happiness was in store for me
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