Wind down with Enya - SOUNDS FAMILIAR by Baby Gil

After all the merrymaking, it is now time to tone things down and take stock of the year ahead. And there is no better way to do it than with the music of Enya. The Irish sprite creates music that relaxes the senses, minimizes the stress, gets you in the mood for introspection and psyches you up for what is to come. You might have some apprehensions about what the year holds for you. But trust me that you can put these to rest for half an hour or more with the help of Enya.

For this album Enya once more collaborates with Nick and Roma Ryan who helped her get her distinctive Enya sound early in her career. Then just as she did in previous releases like The Celts, Watermark, Shepherd Moons and The Memory of Trees, she weaves her magic spell with utmost delicacy in every cut in this new album. Titled A Day without Rain, this is her first effort after five years, although she broke her absence in the charts with Paint the Sky with Stars, a greatest hits collection she released two years ago.

A Day without Rain is familiar territory to Enya followers. The album is made up of her original compositions, which she sings with multi-layered harmonies. This means that all the voices you hear are Enya’s recorded one on top of another. These then are set against a backdrop of piano, strings and urgent percussion, all of which she plays herself. The result has a haunting, dreamlike effect that goes very well with Enya’s exquisite beauty. It is something that is New Age, old Irish, techno and pop at the same time.

A Day without Rain though shows an Enya that is more earthbound than at any time in her career. The goddess has come to rest and her listener does likewise while listening to the tinkling piano of the title track, which opens the album. This makes you think of lazy Sunday afternoons as a beautiful woman playing the piano in a country home while wind blows through the lace curtains, a cat stretches out in the porch and the smell of bread baking comes from the kitchen.

These sights and smells are not the sort one usually associates with Enya. Having stars fall on an enchanted forest glade is more like it or watching an enchantress turn flowers into beautiful maidens. But those are not what A Day without Rain conjures up. The change refreshes and should spark renewed interest in Enya’s music. This more down-to-earth approach is also evident in other cuts in the album like the joyous paean to life, Wild Child, the sweet ballad Only Time, the infectious Lazy Days and the Latin mantra that celebrates the earth, Tempus Vernum.

Enya, who hails from Donegal in Ireland was a classically trained pianist who began her pop music career as a member of the group Clannad, which was made up of close members of her family. Her first break as a soloist came when she was tapped to do the music score for the TV series The Celts. The resulting album introduced her ambient, multi-layered style.

Her first number one seller was the tune Orinoco Flow, from the album Watermark, which hit the top in Britain and later on in other parts of the world. Other hits that followed were Anywhere Is, Only If, Caribbean Blue, Shepherd Moons and Paint the Sky with Stars.

The year 2000 ended with a surprise favorite among radio listeners. This is the new version of the Smokey Robinson classic Cruisin’ where rocker Huey Lewis duets with Academy Award winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who it turns out is a good singer. The song comes from the soundtrack of the motion picture Duets where Lewis and Paltrow played father and daughter putting their lives together amidst the tuneful bustle of the karaoke circuit.

Other current biggies in the airlanes are She Bangs by Ricky Martin; My Love by Westlife; This I Promise You by N’Sync; Stan by Eminem; Shape of My Heart by the Backstreet Boys; Don’t Tell Me by Madonna; I Am Stronger by Britney Spears; Tuwing Umuulan by Regine Velasquez; and Pretty Boy by M2M.