Enya - Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya
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Free Music Notes for Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya
Free Music Review: A good introduction to Enya
Hit: 5 Stars
All but two of the tracks herein have been taken from other albums, specifically THE CELTS, THE MEMORY OF TREES, SHEPHERD MOONS, and WATERMARK. For each contributing album, the title track is included here. See reviews of those individual albums for more detailed discussion of the songs taken from them, since the same recordings are used here.
To get down to specifics, if the only Enya songs that interest you are "Caribbean Blue" and "Orinoco Flow", this album opens with them.
Grouping songs by source album rather than arrangement on this album, PAINT THE SKY WITH STARS contains:
From THE CELTS: "Boadicea" and "The Celts"
From THE MEMORY OF TREES: "Anywhere Is", "China Roses", "The Memory of Trees", and "On My Way Home"
From SHEPHERD MOONS: "Book of Days", "Caribbean Blue", "Ebudae", "Marble Halls", and "Shepherd Moons"
From WATERMARK: "Orinoco Flow", "Storms in Africa", "Watermark"
"Only If" Very cheerful, bouncy sort of song with a lot of staccato string accompaniment. "If you really want to, you can hear me say/Only if you want to will you find a way"
"Paint the Sky with Stars" Very slow tempo, very quiet accompaniment so that the listener can easily follow what Enya is singing. Not quite a lullaby, but close. The title is the refrain. "Only night will ever know/why the heavens never show/all the dreams there are to know/Paint the sky with stars."
Free Music Review: Say "Wowww" with me.
Hit: 5 Stars
Can you say "wow" with your eyes opened to their widest expanse?Say it with me. "Wowww." Good, now keep practicing because you'll want to keep saying it after you've listened to this piece.
I just bought this album today and I refuse to remove it from my stereo. This is my first Enya album. I'm listening to it for the seventh time in a row as I type this. This album has been mentally and spiritually elevating. It moves me. Every song is like its own little universe with its own little preconcieved set of emotions. All you have to do to experience this is listen to the disc with your eyes closed. After you've had it for a while, you might not need to close your eyes anymore.
Quick little story: When I had to break away from my stereo to put my clothes in the dryer, the sweet scent of fabric softener transfused with the lingering echo of "Storms of Africa" gave me a whole new perspective, feel, and appreciation for "laundry day". (Okay, I went overboard). BUT--If you want music that has the ability to pick you up and move you into beautiful spaces of serenity (or if you just love good music), that has a lasting effect even after you've managed to turn it off, then look no further than Enya's Paint the Sky With Stars.
One more thing. If, like me, you happen to also be very much into hip hop and you plan on getting this album, then the last song on this compilation should be a pleasant surprise.
Free Music Review: Consider Love and Enjoy Beauty
Hit: 5 Stars
"Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya" deserves accolades. Before Enya, New Age music was only jazzy, beige elevator music. Kenny G wasn't cutting it for many of us.
This is a best-of CD, and a great place for anyone new to the genre. In mentioning that this is New Age mislabels her style, but it is by no means rock, folk or even easy listening.
You know "Orinoco Flow." That's her big hit, but my favorite it the smoothly pulsing "Anywhere Is."
To enjoy this Enya CD, you've got to like her distinct style. Unlike the interchangeability of pop radio musicians, she sings with a voice of her own. Only Enya can sing Enya songs. I wondered if I could listen to an entire Enya CD, afraid her consistency of style would grate on me. The opposite occured, and the risk became my joy.
Like Vangelis' "Chariots of Fire," pointed the listener to consider God, Enya asks us to consider love and to enjoy the natural beauty.
It is complex, with highly produced layers. The rhythms are balanced by melodies, undertones, and subtle notes. Adjust the levels on your stereo to extract all of the music. Turn up the volume, closed the shades, and soak in the rich, full impact of the grace of Enya.
I fully recommend "Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya." This is a CD worth buying and worth listening to.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
Free Music Review: A Great Beginning
Hit: 5 Stars
Having never heard an Enya album before, this is the one I started with. I would recommend this album for any Enya beginner. It features some of her best music from her earlier albums. The first selection to greet you is the best known "Orinoco Flow". It's "sail away" style introduces you to a musician that is very unique in her creativity. I greatly enjoyed the dubbing of many voices, harmonizing, and blending with the classic instruments. It was a piece that brought my spirits up. Other great spirit lifters are the selections: "Book of Days" and "Anywhere Is". There is a great blending of themes, and presented in a simple musical format.I also enjoyed the slower moving "Memory of Trees" and "China Roses". The music is arranged so beautifully that I felt my eyes getting wet at times. I felt my thoughts get provoked while listening to the pulsing melody in "Boadicea". My mind wandered about while this haunting tune nibbled at my ears. It was great! Besides a broad selection of instrumental work, Enya provides a good mix of single vocal pieces. "Shepherd Moons" and "Marble Halls" gave me a sampling of her beautiful soprano voice. Enya is an artist. She painted my sky with many stars. Stars of a great musical experience. I would recommend this album for any Enya beginner. It was my great beginning.Free Music Review: Spellbinding
Hit: 5 Stars
After years of listening to Enya's music on the radio and loving it, constantly tuning stations to see if it was being played, I decided to get of my backside and buy a CD. This Best-Of compilation seemed the most obvious CD to buy first and I can say it was worth every penny.Some of the most disitinctive songs: The opening track is unique in every way, still captivating 12 years after it's release. Though Orinoco Flow is easily her most famous song, it's probably not her best, Carribean Blue first seems a bit slow coming right after the opener, but you soon realise it is the most well planned, most perfectly crafted track on the album. Anywhere Is and Only If were played a lot on the radio and both are very up-tempo and jumpy. China Roses is beautifully soft and gentle, Storms in Africa conjures up pictures of African plains and wildlife, just what it's meant to.
Inevitably a Best-Of album is never going to have the same flow has an album of new material, but Enya and producer Nicky Ryan always keep the sound and vibe connected throughout, the opeining tracks are the most up-beat, while the sound slowly winds down towards the end, but never bores. The end effect is something that captivates your ears and stays there after the music stops.
A must have from perhaps the most distinctive artist of modern times.