Defend the Indefensible: ENYA (Christmas 2005 edition)

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I mean, "Orinico Flow" aside, what's to like?

She's just been on TOTP for the first time since 1996 (apparently), and it's like she lives in a castle far from civilisation and has no idea what's happened in the w...oh, wait.

Isn't she the non-indie (ie. rub) Liz Fraser? The non-"dancey" Enigma? The non-useful anything?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 4 December 2005 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

'Orinocco Flow' is bobbins as well, let's face it.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Sunday, 4 December 2005 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

Oooh... My 7th grade English teacher played Enya as a treat whenever we were doing creative writing... Maybe that is why my creative writing sucks.

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Sunday, 4 December 2005 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

my god, what did you do to the poor woman to deserve such treatment? we got springsteen's "the river"...

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 4 December 2005 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

hmm... I don't know... talked loud and damaged books? Actually, we didn't do anything bad... She was just mean...

She stopped teaching English and became a librarian after that year...

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Sunday, 4 December 2005 19:40 (nineteen years ago)

She sings pretty songs.

― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 4 December 2005 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

The only people who come into the record store I work at to buy Enya are middle-aged no-nothings who need something "a little different" from that brand of inoffensive folk music that's aimed squarely at aging white Baby Boomers and which they hear on public radio and then go out and purchase.

― vartman (novaheat), Sunday, 4 December 2005 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

but in the uk, those people all buy katie melua albums now!

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 4 December 2005 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

Her first proper album's better than the new Boards of Canada album.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Sunday, 4 December 2005 20:36 (nineteen years ago)

Liz Fraser has gone a bit Enya recently, hasn't she? Now she always sings as if she's in a library and afraid to disturb the folks in Special Collections.

Enya's had some fine pop songs (by that particularly AOR yardstick), but I heard her new single on the BBC World Service last night and it sounded like everything else she's ever done. She's just kinda there.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Sunday, 4 December 2005 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

i got the new enya the day it came out. it's better than the last one, but they need to try something new and more radical having her sing in loxian instead of irish. "watermark" is indisputably classic.

i was going to list a bunch of bands that the enya-mockers at my store buy after making fun of enya that are laughably awful, but that would be catty. ok, jack johnson and bright eyes.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Sunday, 4 December 2005 21:19 (nineteen years ago)

more radical than...

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Sunday, 4 December 2005 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

The fact that she lives in some distant castle and has no idea what's happened in the.... just makes her even hotter, and I already thought she was hott.

I'd take her other-wordly caterwauling over yer average shoot smack into my bell end R&R self mythologising rubbish anyday, thx. Not that you need to pwn more than one of her rekkids (see also ozric tentacles, har)

She is not at all indefensible to me, anyway.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 4 December 2005 21:27 (nineteen years ago)

She looked like Delia Smith on TOTP.

― Leeroy, Sunday, 4 December 2005 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

i think she has several functions: for barren in the womb english teachers, and well....hmmmm what was i thinking...ok, i can actually see wise prison dudes really digging her and finding her stuff substantial for some reason -something in her voice represents comfort sexuality femininity motherliness in a not conflicting with each other way and feels sorta profound and might be useful if you're stuck in solitary confinement and having existential issues (which probably relates back to why housewives and maybe english teachers like her too). that said, i have no desire to buy her albums, but i wouldn't say she's a dud just b/c she has a pretty surface, and i agree that its cool she hasn't tried to keep up with trends. its like she's just enya, that old planet.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Sunday, 4 December 2005 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Defense: L.A. Story, bitches.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Sunday, 4 December 2005 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

xpost best liner notes EVAH.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Sunday, 4 December 2005 22:47 (nineteen years ago)

non-indie (ie. rub)
non-indie (ie. rub)
non-indie (ie. rub)
non-indie (ie. rub)
non-indie (ie. rub)
non-indie (ie. rub)
non-indie (ie. rub)

― ILM 2005, Sunday, 4 December 2005 22:49 (nineteen years ago)

i meant, the idea of a non-indie liz fraser is somewhat counter-intuitive.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 4 December 2005 22:49 (nineteen years ago)

haha oh fuck its ENYA...no wonder i thought it sounded like my bloody valentine in the background

-- strongo hulkington (dubplatestyl...), March 11th, 2004.

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Sunday, 4 December 2005 22:54 (nineteen years ago)

watermark = new age loveless

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Sunday, 4 December 2005 22:55 (nineteen years ago)

its like she's just enya, that old planet.

Turn-of-phrase of the day.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Sunday, 4 December 2005 23:22 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, I like enya, that old planet a lot too!

Quite apart from that, I'll defend Enya as fuck, but will admit to not having felt the need to buy anything after Watermark. It's probable I'd enjoy much of what I might hear of her newer things – the multimultilayered stuff more than the simpler voice-and-piano stuff.

Hm this gives me a thread idea.

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Sunday, 4 December 2005 23:40 (nineteen years ago)

All Enya haters are re-tar-ded.

Here's the thing: SHE'S ENYA.

You put her on when you want to go to sleep. Or when it's rainy out and you want to read a book.

Aside from that: yeah, she's predictable. And consistent.

So's a flippin' hammer, and hammers are quite useful, no?

So step off. She's Enya, and she's the best Enya we have.

Bashing her is just about the most empty gesture one can make on this blue and green globe.

Plus, "Carribbean Blue" totally sounds like it was recorded underwater, which is wicked hard to do.

(BTW: My irony level in this post is 3/10)

― Justin, Monday, 5 December 2005 04:35 (nineteen years ago)

I will happily defend Boadicea. Actually, I remember the whole first album not being that bad; maybe time has played tricks on my mind like th' geto boys.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 5 December 2005 04:45 (nineteen years ago)

jim otm

― dabnis coleman's ghost (dubplatestyle), Monday, 5 December 2005 04:52 (nineteen years ago)

i listen to watermark more than loveless.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 5 December 2005 05:38 (nineteen years ago)

Orinoco flow is great. Well, parts of it are great. She should have stopped there though.

― daavid (daavid), Monday, 5 December 2005 06:28 (nineteen years ago)

I used to have a recurring nightmare about Orinoco Flow. I really did.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Monday, 5 December 2005 06:32 (nineteen years ago)

I like "She's Enya, and she's the best Enya we have."

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 5 December 2005 07:52 (nineteen years ago)

well, there's the enya that was in talulah gosh.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 5 December 2005 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

i'd rather have enya played at me than fucking springsteen! (we got her in primary school gymnastics classes.)

for me she is definitely like my bloody valentine but better (cos she's layering vocals rather than dull guitars), but certainly not better enough to be good or for me to want to own any of her stuff. she's one of those people you don't hate on because there are so many worse people around.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 5 December 2005 11:44 (nineteen years ago)

She pisses off Robert Christgau to no end.
She has a pretty voice.

― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 5 December 2005 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

Enya = Sigur Ros' Mum

― fandango (fandango), Monday, 5 December 2005 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

My brother had a copy of her first album on a tape with Sinead's "lion and the cobra" on the flip and I seem to recall that that was fairly complimentary. I have fond memories of an weekend spent on my grandma's sun porch when I was around 13 or so listening to that tape on repeat while reading some sci-fi/fantasy novel about these fairy-like people who lived in these zero gravity, orb-like tree-planets and flitted around, this way and that, on various adventures and both of those albums complimented the story quite nicely.

It's also probably telling that I just tried to relive that fond memory by listening to a bunch of thirty second samples of the entire album and only about a third of it sounded at all familiar...

― ianinportland (ianinportland), Monday, 5 December 2005 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

i like some of her songs.

― latebloomer: The Corridor (Yes, The Corridor) (latebloomer), Monday, 5 December 2005 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

her web site is entertaining in its awfulness.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 5 December 2005 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

how does she piss christgau off? i want to know!!

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 5 December 2005 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

prank phone calls, mainly

― ZR (teenagequiet), Monday, 5 December 2005 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

All's I know is her two big hits. "Orinoco Flow" was the exact midpoint link between New Age and "Gloria", which was good. And I don't know the title of her other biggie, but I can't dis it either, just because it always somehow evokes SOMETHING out of my childhood, and damned if I can't ever remember exactly what. (I'm talking about my early-to-mid '70s childhood, long before Enya's arrival.) She did indeed have a pretty voice; and the violin pizzicati are unique enough pop music-wise as to be noteworthy. And of her lyrics, I know not a one, and intend to keep it that way.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 06:30 (nineteen years ago)

did i see a boards of canada reference? i fail to see any remote resemblence. was that a random thought, or a dis on the boards?
i gotta admit, i get a kick out of the thought of a boards of canada christmas album

― Robin Samples (Robin Samples), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 07:12 (nineteen years ago)

a) LA Story, kind of
b) todd edwards like her, allegedly, though i don't hear how this makes a difference if you like todd edwards
c) fugees used her ok
d) "i don't wanna know" used her less well.
e) ok haircut?? uh... that's it i think.

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 07:25 (nineteen years ago)

f) pretty sure she scored some formative sexual experience.

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 07:25 (nineteen years ago)

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