So you thought New Age music sounded like funny space gurgles and whale mating calls? Well, you don't have to worship tofu and homemade granola to check out Enya.
With her newest CD, "The Memory of Trees," Enya bridges the gap between stereotypical "crunchy" music and prepackaged Billboard Magazine Top 40 pop with great instrumentality and a softly haunting voice.
In fact, I recommend picking up this CD, for any mellow atmosphere from romancing a hot date to grinding away on an differential equations problem set.
Before releasing "The Memory of Trees," she had already sold more than 20 million CDs and 18 million albums. Those figures make her one of Ireland's top hundred wealthiest people. She ranks second only to Bono of U2 fame as Irish artists go on that distinguished list.
However, popularity has not lulled Enya into regurgitating trendy music for a quick profit. The meat of her talent can always be traced to her cultural roots and intellect. While she tends to stick to her native Irish tongue, she also sings in Latin, Welsh, and Spanish.
But don't worry about buying music with lyrics that you probably won't understand unless you translate for the United Nations. The beauty of Enya is that you don't need literal translations, though some are available on the Internet. Besides, five of her 11 new songs are in plain old English.
Born in the quaint village of Dobhar in the northwest of the Republic of Ireland, "Enya" is really Eithne Ni Bhraonain. Ever considerate of her listeners' pronunciation phobia, Eithne spells her professional name phonetically to avoid the embarrassing verbal faux pas.
She comes from roots about as musically-inclined as the Partridge Family. Her mom and dad played in a family dance band. Along with two brothers, two uncles, and a sister, Enya performed with the internationally successful band Clannad.
After Clannad and their manager/producer Nicky Ryan went their separate ways in 1982, Enya followed Ryan to Dublin. In fact, people often believe that "Enya" is really comprised of three people -- Enya herself focuses on the music and its arrangements, Nicky produces and arranges and his wife Roma composes the multilingual lyrics.
Enya got her first break when the head of Warner Music UK recruited her to release her "Watermark" album in 1987. Her debut hit "Orinoco Flow" shot to number one in several countries, and Enya finally moved into her own right.
Enya has also performed with other artists like Sinead O'Connor in the album "The Lion and The Cobra." In general, her sound compares most closely to other Celtic New Age artists like Loreena McKennitt, Sarah McLachlan, and Jane Siberry.
The sweeping delicacy of her voice fills you with that crisp, panning landscape feeling characteristic of Julie Andrews's twirling on the mountaintops in "The Sound of Music."
With three instrumental songs, "The Memory of Trees" captures Enya's quintessential style. The title track, a mix of instrumental and unintelligible voices, starts off with simple melody, blending harmoniously with synthesizer chords of piano and strings.
Echoes of the tribal drums and voices bring the listener back to the high days of Enya's Celtic scores for a BBC-TV documentary.
Stonehenge, anyone?
Almost completely instrumental, the eerie single "Pax Deorum" embraces Enya's flair for suspense and drama. With ominous horns, howling winds, and beating drums, the Latin chanting takes on the aspect of a suped-up religious rite.
The lead voices blend and multiply into a frightening crescendo, always drawing from an underlying current of soft voices. The Benedictine monks might want to contract Enya out for their next release.
An equally impressive song, "China Roses" is exemplary of Enya's poetic lyrics. Amalgamating a flowing pseudo-flute and harp, Enya enhances her dreamy message. In this song, the protagonist describes her total contentment with the world: "Who can tell me if we have heaven/ Who can say the way it should be/ Moonlight holly, the Sappho Comet/ Angel's tears below a tree./ . . . I know that if I have heaven there is nothing to desire./ Rain and river, a world of wonder/ may be paradise to me."
The sweeping synthesizer and voices placate the ear -- drawing the listener into the same feeling that all is well in the world. Enya sings, "A new world waits for me, my dream, my way." Looking positively forward, she embraces the natural beauty of the sun and stars to carve her own way in the world.
She captures the same optimism and happiness in a tune packed with pseudo-chimes, "On My Way Home," in which she sings, "On my way home/ I remember/ only good days./ On my way home/ I remember all the best days./ I'm on my way home/ I can remember/ every new day."
Her uplifting lyrics remind one of the euphoric feeling of hopping on the plane from Boston to Atlanta after a rough term of snow and ice in Hanover.
"La Sonadora" is a new twist for Enya. She combines her usual synthesized organ and soft voices, but in Spanish. She even has a pretty good accent. Simplistic, almost minimalist, the song consists of poetic verses interspersed with waves of electronic chords. She sings, "Yo, el otono/ Yo, el vespero/ He sido un eco/ Sere una ola/ Sere la luna/ He sido todo, soy yo/ Yo, el verano/ Yo, el ebano/ Soy la sonadora."
This reflects Enya's uncomplicated, but very meaningful music. Relating to the outside world, unifying herself with nature, she always manages to sum up life in a few graceful lines of beauty.
While "The Memory of Trees" offers a few new variations like "La Sonadora," it reminds me a lot of a previous album, "Shepherd Moons."
Enya has composed new songs with very similar sounds, but slightly different lyrical material. Because of its dream-like content, I don't really see the historical aspect of this album popping up as much as it did previously. For example, on "Shepherd Moons," she belted out a Shaker hymn about tolerance and enduring pain that drove a clear message home.
Take courage and give "The Memory of Trees" a try. If you've never heard of her, this is a good starter album. Besides, Enya's music should sound familiar since it has been featured in Hollywood films like "Green Card," "L.A. Story," "Far and Away," "Sleepwalkers," "Toys" and "Age of Innocence."
After all, her single "Caribbean Blue" salvaged the Irish essence of "Far and Away" despite Tom Cruise's forced accent. Don't let misconceptions about New Age music keep you from experiencing a work of profound creativity from a great artist.
