She can feel like 'a strange cult classic'.

September 21, 2020 12:21 AM

Enya Is Everywhere - "Amid Enya's many decades of candlelit mystique and mythological lyrics, it's an outlier—an inquisitive ode to love lost, like an ambient girl-group 45—and as it snuck up on me, its pull became overwhelming. 'Even in the Shadows' reminded me of music by younger artists whom I knew Enya inspired, like Ioanna Gika, but it was, beguilingly, from her most recent album, 2015's Dark Sky Island. 'That song is me exposing myself', Enya said then. 'It's a heartbreak song. I've never done a heartbreak song before'. She was 54."
posted by kliuless (37 comments total)

I listen to Enya for about two and a half hours every work day while my students nap. She slaps.

The funny thing is some preschool teachers think any Enya is good for nap time, forgetting that borderline demonic Enya Singing in Tongues tracks are out there. And they slap.
posted by Betty_effn_White at 12:56 AM on September 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

I see Enya almost every day, in crossword puzzles.

[I always had a soft spot for her, and Clannad as well.]
posted by chavenet at 12:58 AM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I see Enya almost every day, in crossword puzzles

I am so angry about that Yale clue what even is that
posted by Betty_effn_White at 1:03 AM on September 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

The Pitchfork podcast interview with the writer of the feature, Jenn Pelly, is worth a listen.
posted by Kattullus at 1:20 AM on September 21, 2020

When I worked in an industrial plastics factory in the late eighties the only artist we heard pumped in through the new age muzak station to us on the floor more of than Enya was Kenny G. Somewhat later I rediscovered her when her music was brought to my attention by being put to such good use on the sound track to Steve Martin's movie L.A. Story, and I listened with earnestness to Watermark quite a lot. The song tracks from that album, like On Your Shore, struck me as just transcendentally deeply beautiful. No excuses needed!

But I haven't paid attention to what she's been doing in the meantime; sounds like she has not been slacking, so I guess I'll have to check it out. Thanks for posting the article!
posted by bertran at 1:41 AM on September 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I’d like to hear more about these “borderline demonic Enya Singing in Tongues” tracks.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:53 AM on September 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

The title of this post resonates with my experience because the first and for a long time only place I heard her was in a strange used bookstore in Seattle run by a guy I was pretty sure was a major fence, and although it really reached me, I didn't want to know who made it because I thought it was music out of a religion that did not and could not exist, but that I might believe in anyway, which would have been too dangerous
posted by jamjam at 2:58 AM on September 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

i am grateful for this post reminding me of Clannad's theme song for Robin of Sherwood (Rooooobin... the Hooded Man) and what a fantastic show that was
posted by kokaku at 2:59 AM on September 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Me too, Mister Moofoo.
posted by jamjam at 2:59 AM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’d like to hear more about these “borderline demonic Enya Singing in Tongues” tracks.

I wish I remember what it (there may be more than one, but I mostly remember one) was called. She goes all Night on Bald Mountain and it’s jarring but it rules.
posted by Betty_effn_White at 3:11 AM on September 21, 2020

> I’d like to hear more about these “borderline demonic Enya Singing in Tongues” tracks.

I wish I remember what it (there may be more than one, but I mostly remember one) was called. She goes all Night on Bald Mountain and it’s jarring but it rules.

Cursum Perficio, maybe?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:04 AM on September 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

I was so overcaffeinated in college that I had to make regular use of Enya's "Shepherd Moons" and "Watermark" albums to get me to sleep most nights.

Then I had the problem that I couldn't fall asleep without her music. Breaking *that* habit was terrifically difficult.

So Enya dropped off my radar...thanks for bringing her back!

(and for some reason, "Caribbean Blue" reminds me of large, hulking mountains on snowy moonless nights...)
posted by notsnot at 5:14 AM on September 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

I would like to hear more.
posted by sinema.films at 5:34 AM on September 21, 2020

As one of two commercials backed by Enya's "Only Time", if not both, have invariably aired during Chibi Maruko-chan for the past few years, for me, Enya has become most associated with 半導体シリコンウェーハＳＵＭＣＯ (literally, "semiconductor silicon wafer Sumco").

I'll always wonder what the intent was for footage of a gynoid with an exaggeratedly feminine gait walking through a derelict industrial building to follow the voiceover asking how the next 100 years will be changed by semiconductors (0:19 in the first commercial).
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 5:38 AM on September 21, 2020

Enya was, is, and will probably forever be one of the most unique visionaries in music. Has her work gotten a little formulaic over time? Absolutely. But the formula itself has always proven remarkably distinct, moving, and more technically complicated than some people might realize. Her voice is also simply divine in ways that go beyond questions of "prowess." When asked to describe her musical genre, she generally just says, "Enya," and I think she's right— which I would not say of practically anybody else.
posted by Llywelyn at 6:52 AM on September 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

Chilly Gonzalez (previously) has recently written a book about Enya that you can pre-order if you're interested.

ENYA: A Treatise on Unguilty Pleasures

Does music have to be smart or does it just have to go to the heart? In dazzling, erudite prose Chilly Gonzales delves beyond the innumerable gold discs and millions of fans to excavate his own enthusiasm for Enya’s singular music and the mysterious musical herself, and along the way to uncover new truths about the nature of music, fame, success and the artistic endeavour.

posted by lazaruslong at 7:03 AM on September 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I’d like to hear more about these “borderline demonic Enya Singing in Tongues” tracks.

If the song title is in Latin you've probably found one: Cursum Perficio, Pax Deorum, Tempus Vernum. Her last album didn't really have one (Astra et Luna breaks the Latin title rule).
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:14 AM on September 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

The article's aforementioned Ioanna Gika's Thalassa is a bit sublime, and her IO Echo collaboration with Big Pink's Leopold Ross produced the excellent and subtly heavy single Harm in 2017.
posted by angelplasma at 9:15 AM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have loved Enya's music since high school. She is a truly unique artist.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:41 AM on September 21, 2020

I can’t hear Caribbean Blue without breaking into tears after it was used in the finale of Derry Girls, season 2. That happiness and optimism and the reminder that the United States once had presidents who were not a fucking embarrassment to decency just undoes me.
posted by corey flood at 10:15 AM on September 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

I had a huge Enya phase back in the early '90s. Ditto Loreena McKennitt.
posted by briank at 10:31 AM on September 21, 2020 [12 favorites]

After listening to a number of Enya pieces last night, I listened to Orff's O Fortuna .

There are deep similarities.
posted by jamjam at 11:17 AM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

If having a number of Enya albums is one of my guiltiest guilty pleasures, it's also one of my most pleasurable guilty pleasures. The first time I heard "Exile" from Watermark, with some of my high school friends (this was several years after we'd graduated), I ventured the opinion that it would be a great song to make love to. The ensuing silence was... uncomfortable. (But I wasn't wrong.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:53 PM on September 21, 2020

See also: Cocteau Twins' Lazy Calm (and the rest of Victorialand).
posted by The Tensor at 1:06 PM on September 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I only know "Watermark" and I'd like to hear more. I was disappointed when the author mentioned "the 19-song Enya primer I received in the final days of 2019" which I couldn't find in her article -- did I just overlook it?
posted by Rash at 1:41 PM on September 21, 2020

This AskMe might be of interest to people posting in a thread about Enya.
posted by box at 1:44 PM on September 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I had "The Celts" before "Watermark" was released, back in college, so I like to think I came by fandom honestly. Lest anyone think she's nothing but pastoral, one of her earlier post-Clannad credits is on Sinead O'Conner's "The Lion and the Cobra" -- she intones the Irish verses at the opening of "Never Get Old."

I saw this article on Pitchfork last week and mostly it just confused me. But I guess that just means now I'm old.
posted by jburka at 6:01 PM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Enya is one of the few artists whose full catalog I own (of those that have fairly large catalogs, that is; among the others: ABBA, Two Steps from Hell/Thomas Bergerson, probably a few others I can't think of). For a long time my favorite album was The Celts, but every time I listen to A Day Without Rain my thumb twitches to add almost every song to my favorites playlist, even though they're already there.

I also went through a long Loreena McKennit phase, but she's not ambient enough for me ; I can't ignore the lyrics when I want to, as I can with Enya.

I, too, saw the article originally on Pitchfork, and it made me very happy (though I am also old); I actually had no idea Enya really is considered cool.
posted by lhauser at 7:07 PM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Shepherd Moons was released on the same day as My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (November 4th 1991 in the US), I know because I went to the record store very excited to buy Loveless but walked out with Shepherd Moons. Priorities.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 7:31 PM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’d like to hear more about these “borderline demonic Enya Singing in Tongues” tracks.

If that isn't a cue for someone to create some Enya/Diamanda Galas mashups....
posted by gtrwolf at 8:03 PM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I had the strange experience of going through Enya's Watermark album becoming popular twice. It really made a giant wave in Germany back in 1987 when I was there as an exchange student, and then when I got back to the US later that year, it suddenly became popular here. That was... strange.

I love Enya's vibe, but I have a problem with how Watermark and Shepherd's Moon are basically the same album made twice. I haven't heard her more recent material, but I should check it out soon.

I'm glad she's considered cool. I always thought she was cool. Thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 8:24 PM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Even from the first play of any song (and I know I heard many of her songs right after they came out), Enya’s music has always seemed to me like a song I learned long ago and am listening to again. It has always been the same comfort as nostalgia to listen to her music.

Before all the ice rinks closed, I got used to hearing enya played for every open skate... that and Vivaldi played for every sessions... So good for flow...
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:31 PM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

They're only "demonic" insofar as native English speakers seem to equate any sung Latin not heard in a church with the devil. Cursum Perficio is probably the most ominous sounding of the demonic Enya songs, but here is a translation of the lyrics:

Watermark
A word to the wise
The more people have, the more they want
After the clouds, the sun
Again and again

Just the title of Pax Deorum, well... verbum sat sapienti est.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:35 PM on September 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Enya Is Everywhere

Enya is everything
Enya is everybody
Enya is still the queen
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:07 PM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I was hip-deep in my Hiberniophile phase in college and had snapped this up. But what I remember most about Watermark was one afternoon when I'd come home from classes, and felt a little bit sick - not, like, go-to-the-school-clinic sick, more like chill-out-and-try-to-nap sick. I put Watermark on and set my tape deck to loop it - and then spent the next couple of hours or so fading in and out of sleep. I don't really know or remember how long - all I remember is that I kept on gently falling asleep and gently waking up over and over, and whenever I woke up there would be lovely music playing that would lull me back to sleep again.

(My roommates were both out the whole time, which was also probably good.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:40 AM on September 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

When my sons were little we gave them a CD player for Christmas and asked family members to give them a CD of something they thought the boys should know. My grandmother gave then Enya's greatest hits and we played that at bedtime for a long time. When I hear one of her songs now I feel nostalgic for my kids' youth and then I miss my grandma. Bittersweet.
posted by Biblio at 1:40 PM on September 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

It took me a couple of days to remember it, but for a very somber Enya try Boudicca (Boadicea on this version, but I'd swear I listened to it first as Boudicca, and for the sake of the subject herself I prefer the slightly less Romanized name).

This one is 3:26, but there are extended versions I might listen to on a day I feel a bit more confident about coming out in one piece.
posted by jamjam at 11:12 PM on September 22, 2020