Defend the Indefensible: ENYA (Christmas 2005 edition)

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Turn-of-phrase of the day.

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.

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)

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.

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...

i gotta admit, i get a kick out of the thought of a boards of canada christmas album

In a way they’re all Christmas albums.

she lives in a giant impenetrable castle near Dublin with a bunch of cats and doesn't see anyone. Classic.

Do people still really dislike Enya?

i like her! i quite like Shepard Moons in particular. My friend bought me an Enya t-shirt as a joke but the joke is on him.

Yeah i think stuff like Caribbean Blue is sumptuous and escapist. The way she layers her vocals and blends them with the instruments is an art in itself

first four albums are unassailable, then it starts to get kinda uneven, but the May It Be single is a latterday high point and Dark Sky Island (last new album) was pretty solid. the real question is will they ever release another album now that Nicky Ryan has passed away? I predict one more with what they'd recorded before he died.

Listening to latter-day Sparks albums with their synthetic orchestral arrangements and sweeping multitracked Russells, I've thought more than once that a Sparks-Enya collaboration would make for a cosmic occurrence. But can I imagine the Maels being invited to the castle, however gallant their overture?

Has Enya seen Valley Girl?

the real question is will they ever release another album

i don't think of Enya as a Sade situation (band, not person), nor is she non-binary

Do people still really dislike Enya?

I have my personal favorite Enya joints, but I think she's over-hyped. Even as someone who is open to cheesy new age music I can't listen to an entire album of hers.

In terms of fluffy ambient sugarpop I prefer Enya to Sigur Rós, but both make me want to visit the dentist after hearing them

i don't think of Enya as a Sade situation (band, not person), nor is she non-binary

"[Roma Ryan] is the primary lyricist for the singer Enya, who has stated that the importance of her and her late husband Nicky Ryan's contributions is such that without them, Enya would not exist."

oh interesting. I did read her wikipedia page yesterday but kind of glossed over that.

He produced 100% of Enya's recorded material, starting way back with the Frog Prince soundtrack. That massively multi-tracked chorus of her singing her vocal part like a hundred times with lots of reverb thing? That's Nicky Ryan.

I would guess by this point they could probably do it without him, but it's not at all clear to me they would want to.

circling back to the thread topic, I love Enya but think the Christmas material is pretty weak, just like to hear the non-Christmas stuff more at Christmastime