Two weeks ago I was asked if I would provide the “Irish music” for a themed church dinner tonight. I quickly found out that meant playing the pipes and whistle solo for only two hours! Since it was basically “mood music” I reached a compromise in that I would play a little and then provide a couple of homemade CDs for the rest of the time.
Two weeks were spent in preparation selecting the exact music to play and more to burn to CD.
Tonight I show up all ready to go only to find out that the daughter of the gentleman in charge has usurped the “entertainment” portion of the event and has brought her boombox and lifetime collection of Enya. Words cannot express, at this point in time, how much I now hate Enya!! It’s not like I really liked her music to start with…but this just frosts the cake.
My niece recently told me that she was “getting into Irish music - just like you!” She went on to tell me that Enya was her favorite, well, that Enya was the only thing she knew about it. Normally I would have gone into rant mode, but since she’s the only child of my favorite sister I let is slide.
Ugh! Music like Enya’s is the reason I take the stairs.
Bad luck John-I bet you were fuming after the hard work that you put in.Why would anyone need “a lifetime collection of Enya c.d.'s”? I would have thought that one would suffice-All the Enya songs that I’ve heard sound the same to me!
Kinda reminds me of the time someone told me they were really into jazz, and all they had was John Tesh stuff. Sheesh! Makes about as much sense as a Kenny G Christmas album.
Once I heard that Enya would be on The Tonight Show, and figured I had to tune in, just to see what she sounds like without giant piles of reverb and other effects.
This despite my immense dislike of the Leno show. “and also in the news, blah blah blah blah 4,000 year-old mummy blah blah blah BOB DOLE!!!” GGGGGhhhh, okay, this rant is over.
Anyway, the music starts, and there’s Enya at a piano, singing into a microphone… under giant mountains of reverb. They put reverb on the mic. Plus a bevy of gauzy backup vocals and so forth, carefully creating the exact same sound you get on her albums, an effect that a friend of mine likens to having one’s head in a fish bowl.
I wonder if she tours, and if she does, if her fans expect this exact same sound that they get on their CDs; or rather if they expect a live performance to sound more like people.
Yea, enya needs to find a new job. The only song she ever did that I didn’t hate totally was the one on the LotR soundtrack and she didn’t write that one.
I’m actually quite fond of Enya in moderation. I do have a problem that people consider her music Irish. I don’t consider her music any more archetypally Irish than U2. It’s space cadet music with a heavy pop element, more similar to Jean-Michel Jarre than to Planxty.
To answer Caj’s question, she doesn’t tour – she hadn’t performed live since her Clannad days until the last album came out, when she did a limited number of appearances, mostly or possibly all on TV. Since she plays virtually all of the instruments, heavily overdubs the vocals, and spends months mixing, she didn’t think she could reproduce her sound live.
I kinda like her music… I have only one CD of hers (A day without rain), and I find it pretty nice when you come home from a long day at work and just want to relax and read. It’s soothing to listen to.
Although, I agree; she isn’t exactly celtic per se… more ‘New Age’ with a slight Celtic flavor…
Well, I like Enya . . . it’s denfinatly not trad, though. She has her own place in the irish sound.
She hardly makes excellent albums throughout, though. I like four to five songs per album, but that’s it. Her best album is Watermark, which must be over ten years old now. A day without rain was extreamly bland.
She has gotten commercial success . . . unlike alot of other “irish” musicians. Which is why U2, the Cranberries, Enya are all concered “irish” by the mass public. Of course, the mass public hasn’t heard(or perhaps doesn’t want to hear) good trad, but that’s another argument.
I like Enya a lot, and was very sad when our car window was smashed to bits in the middle of the night and the one thing taken was our one and only Enya CD.
That said, I have not and never will think of Enya as “Irish” music. In fact, the first time I read a post here a few months ago that some people think her music is Irish, I was very surprised. I’ve always considered her New Age and put her in the same category as Yanni (whom I also love) and a few others.
You have no idea how many times people have responded “You mean, like Enya or U2?” when I bring up the fact that I play Irish traditional music. Once I countered with “No, more like the ‘Lucky Charms®’ commercials but much better”.
Mention lucky charms in my presense again, and I’ll strangle you. I’m sorry, but I cannot abide that goofy gnome elf leprechaun whatever cartoon thingy on those commercials. Most irritating damn thing on the television, except maybe the trix rabbit…
Well, just for my 2 cents… Enya may not be spun full of jigs and reels consisting of a bodhran/fiddle/flute/bouzouki instrumentation, but lets not forget that there is a big part of Irish music (that is unmistakeably “traditional”, that is, indigenous to the British Isles of Celtic times) that is music primarily for solo voice in the form of sung Gaelic poetry. It is what we interpret when we play “slow airs” on the flute or whistle, as the majority of these tunes have words that are seldom, seldom sung anymore.
I wasn’t around a couple thousand years ago when the Celts were nearing the end of their “traditional” civilization, but I would imagine you would find quite a few ladies like Enya spinning long Gaelic poems in slow verse with their voices. As for her use of reverb, I can’t comment… singing in a cave???
the other day at work, just this past week, i was playin’ one of the early capercaille discs–crosswinds, i think–and one of the kids (that means someone probably under 30, or even 35) came over and said: that sounds like enya. i could only respond with a blank look.
well… what can I say. While Enya is certainly not anything to get too excited about, a bit on the new-agey celtic sampler side of things… It does have its place. I have fond memories of that place… it involves the backseat/cargo area of a Blue GEO Metro parked along the road, and “The Celts” in the CD player. Better than average “Soundtrack” music.
(of course.. Angus Youngs naughty school boy peoms set to high voltage guitar also works quite well for this sort of soundtrack)
(now THAT’S something I’d like to hear!!) 