Enya - Amarantine
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Free Music Notes for Amarantine
Free Music Review: A much angrier Enya
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been a huge enya fan since my college days. I listened to Shepherd Moons and I would play my harp to "Caribbean Blue" in my farternity house basement. Enya always seemed bubbly and happy and optimistic. Well, those days are over. This is a very angry Enya album. It's almost like the Sith Lord brought her over to the dark side and let her anger flow. There are several tracks on this where she just seems fed up with the establishment and she holds nothing back in unleashing her fury. This is not an album for someone that is soft. Enya takes the ball into the paint, lays down a drop step and slams this ball home on Shaq's head. She doesn't apologize for it either. This is much like a Nine Inch Nails CD, only darker. There are themes on this that made me a little uncomfortable to make pop tarts for a snack. I felt like this album reached out of the stereo and yelled at me for an hour. I'm not going to lie, I enjoy the Cd because everything isn't bright and sunny all of the time. If it was, we'd all just drive Honda's and drink tea all summer.
This type of transformation is not unheard of in the realm of new age music. Burns is quite simply the world's greatest keyboard player. When he took a hiatus from Asschowder a few months ago, he unleashed some hard core keyboard music dealing with sandwiches and Nascar that quite frakly, the world wasn't ready to hear. He just got out the keyboard and explored the space. He sent the pain below and showed the world a side of Burns that hadn't been seen since his triple double versus Rhombus in 1991. Burns gets women, has money and is the best keyboard player in the world. Yes, that should make you happy, but Burns is often misunderstood and his release "Keyboard Mosh Pit" sent a message that Burns isn't always smurfy. Enya sent that same message home on this platter.
Free Music Review: Standard New Age formula
Hit: 2 Stars
Back in the '90s,I was an avid Enya fan."Shepherd Moons" initiated me into her pecular Celtic brilliance.In college,I added "Memory of Trees","The Celts" and "Watermark" to my collection.Every song was different,from the threnody of "Cursum Perficio" to the thrilling "Orinoco Flow",the sensual "Lothlorien" and the powerful "Hope has a place." Enya sang the great "May it be" for the Lord of the Rings trilogy;she seemed posied for further triumphs.
Then the font of inspiration began to run dry in "Day without rain."
"Amarantine" is nostalgic in some ways,recalling earlier,better albums.It's formulaic,pop-ified New Age music.The title song has the syrupy lyrics "love is love is." "If I could be where you are" is filled with trite longing."The River Sings" is in Roma Ryan's pseudo-Tolkien "Loxian",and it's a blander version of better,earthier songs in "The Celts." "Sumiregusa" sounded promising as a fusion of Celtic and Japanese music;it does have its beautiful moments,glinting like stars through clouds,but it tends to be as forced as a loveless arranged marriage.
"Amarantine" lacks Enya's usual fire&passion.Its few highlights are the spiritual,Eastern (and in "Loxian"),"Less than a Pearl." "Amid the falling snow" is brief,and beautiful.It evokes a winter wonderland-no wonder it was on Enya's recent Christmas album.Finally,"It's in the rain" is the best piece,its zenith.It's melancholy,passionate,an oasis in a parched land of inspiration.One could imagine the song accompanying a story of forbidden love.
"Memory of Trees" was Enya's last great album;it was released 11 yrs ago.Sadly,"Amarantine" falls well short of Enya's musical prowess.It's cliched,easy-listening,and trite.One hopes that Enya's current respite from making albums is giving her a chance to get some spiritual&musical invigoration.As a fan,I hope she will return to the originality and creativity she once had.
Free Music Review: Maybe I'm expecting too much,
Hit: 3 Stars
but I was disappointed with this CD. I have loved all the previous original Enya CD's. This one left me feeling flat. Maybe I'd best stay will the previous ones. I thought that the songs that were attributed to other authors weren't as good. And in fact I didn't realize that they were other authors until after listening to the CD, I read the entire information to see what was going on. I'll listen to it a couple more times to see if it "grows" on me, but I'm not looking forward to it.Free Music Review: Enya Amarantine
Hit: 4 Stars
I was very excited to receive the CD. It was everything I expected it to be and if needed I would purchase it all over again!Free Music Review: Love is Love is Love is what you already heard
Hit: 3 Stars
I hate to say this, but Enya has run out of things to say. Even to the point that Roma Ryan has made up a fictional language to burble about. "Amarantine" is something you've heard before, and often. Even if it takes Enya five years between albums, you get the vague impression that this was what you just listened to.
Darn shame that. The billowing clouds of multi-Enya's singing like a blissed out choir were what made her great. There was no-one else out there that made songs anything like "Orinoco Flow" or "Storms In Africa." But we're talking almost 20 years ago, and "Amarantine" just sounds like warmed over material. The songs all waft and drift, and instead of inspiring bliss...they just vanish. Only the generic ballad "Someone Said Goodbye" sounds like it could transcend the album we're listening to, because this all just runs into itself, like cotton candy fluff for aging new-agers.
Maybe it was too much to expect that Enya and her collaborators could maintain brilliance forever. But like sonic architect Enigma (or even going back to The Alan Parsons Project), eventually the striking original becomes the banal. Unfortunately, that is what we have with "Amarantine."