Call me a Philistine. Call me fuddy duddy. Worse yet, call me a hopeless addict, but I'll be the first to admit, I'm an Enya CD collector. In my 10/23/08 post, I mentioned that I consider a fad to be anything involving upwards of 20 million people and since Enya has had over 30 million sales in the U.S. alone, she could be considered trendy, but I'm not ashamed. You may see multiple albums pictured on this post, but "the second CD of Christmas" is really just
Shepherd Moons, winner of the first of Enya's four Grammy Awards for "Best New Age Album." It doesn't have Christmas in the title like some of her later work, but it was released early one November and my dad must have bought it shortly thereafter, because I remember him playing it throughout the holidays and almost till spring. The opening and title track encapsulates the season of winter more than any other song I know. The second track,
"Caribbean Blue," doesn't transport me to a tropical paradise - instead, it brings to my mind the hustle and bustle of gift shopping, or of Santa's elves speedily building toys. The third track,
"How Can I Keep From Singing?" sounds like midnight Mass because of the echo and organ. The tribal fourth track isn't very Christmasy, neither the popular single, "Book of Days," nor the last track with bagpipes. But I still like them all. My two favorite tracks on the album (and the most Christmasy) are
"Angeles" and
"Marble Halls" (which reminds my granddad of his childhood).
Enya's follow-up to
Shepherd Moons was the
Oíche Chiún (Silent Night) single. My dad immediately snatched that up too but I waited a few years and then bought
The Christmas EP. They have different cover art but both feature the songs
"Oíche Chiún" and
"'s Fagaim Mo Bhaile" (very Christmasy). The reason I waited to buy the EP was that it had more songs than the single, but those songs turned out to be recycled from the albums
Watermark and
The Celts. Now I'm missing the song
"Oriel Window" (more Christmasy), which is on the single but not on the EP, and I prefer that to the song
"As Baile" (less Christmasy), which is on the EP but not on the single. I'm also missing the Target exclusive,
Sounds of the Season: The Enya Holiday Collection (known as the
Christmas Secrets EP in Canada). It starts with "Oíche Chiún" (which seems to be on everything including the charity compilation,
A Very Special Christmas), but adds a couple new interpretations of the Christmas classics, "Adeste Fideles (Oh Come All Ye Faithful)" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Both of those versions are so-so, but the fourth track,
"Christmas Secrets" is a must-have and I don't have it (the cheapest solution may be to buy the import-only
Amarantine: Special Christmas Edition, an album I already own the original version of).
In my 11/11/08 post, I noted that both Enya and Mannheim Steamroller had come out with Christmas-themed albums on the same day.
And Winter Came... was Enya's release that day and if you take away the song I discussed in that post, "Trains and Winter Rains," along with the rockin' "My! My! Time Flies!" (which just happen to be the first two tracks on last year's
Very Best of Enya CD/DVD) what you're left with is like a new version of
Shepherd Moons. The title track on
And Winter Came... encapsulates the season almost as well as the title track on
Shepherd Moons. The second track,
"Journey of the Angels" takes me back to "Angeles" and
"Last Time By Moonlight" is like the new "Marble Halls." The third track,
"White Is in the Winter Night," is the new gift shopping/elf toymaking addition. The fourth track,
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" is the new midnight Mass carol. I'm hardly the first person to suggest that Enya's albums all sound the same and I won't be the last that honestly doesn't care. Ireland's other, bigger, musical export to the world, U2, also cranks out albums which all sound the same to me and I'm fine with that as well (I like their "Christmas Baby Please Come Home" on the aforementioned charity compilation,
A Very Special Christmas). There are lots of excessive and redundant holiday traditions and I'll take them all, thank you much.
Call me a Philistine. Call me fuddy duddy. Worse yet, call me a hopeless addict, but I'll be the first to admit, I'm an Enya CD collector. In my 10/23/08 post, I mentioned that I consider a fad to be anything involving upwards of 20 million people and since Enya has had over 30 million sales in the U.S. alone, she could be considered trendy, but I'm not ashamed. You may see multiple albums pictured on this post, but "the second CD of Christmas" is really just Shepherd Moons, winner of the first of Enya's four Grammy Awards for "Best New Age Album." It doesn't have Christmas in the title like some of her later work, but it was released early one November and my dad must have bought it shortly thereafter, because I remember him playing it throughout the holidays and almost till spring. The opening and title track encapsulates the season of winter more than any other song I know. The second track, "Caribbean Blue," doesn't transport me to a tropical paradise - instead, it brings to my mind the hustle and bustle of gift shopping, or of Santa's elves speedily building toys. The third track, "How Can I Keep From Singing?" sounds like midnight Mass because of the echo and organ. The tribal fourth track isn't very Christmasy, neither the popular single, "Book of Days," nor the last track with bagpipes. But I still like them all. My two favorite tracks on the album (and the most Christmasy) are "Angeles" and "Marble Halls" (which reminds my granddad of his childhood).
Enya's follow-up to Shepherd Moons was the Oíche Chiún (Silent Night) single. My dad immediately snatched that up too but I waited a few years and then bought The Christmas EP. They have different cover art but both feature the songs "Oíche Chiún" and "'s Fagaim Mo Bhaile" (very Christmasy). The reason I waited to buy the EP was that it had more songs than the single, but those songs turned out to be recycled from the albums Watermark and The Celts. Now I'm missing the song "Oriel Window" (more Christmasy), which is on the single but not on the EP, and I prefer that to the song "As Baile" (less Christmasy), which is on the EP but not on the single. I'm also missing the Target exclusive, Sounds of the Season: The Enya Holiday Collection (known as the Christmas Secrets EP in Canada). It starts with "Oíche Chiún" (which seems to be on everything including the charity compilation, A Very Special Christmas), but adds a couple new interpretations of the Christmas classics, "Adeste Fideles (Oh Come All Ye Faithful)" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Both of those versions are so-so, but the fourth track, "Christmas Secrets" is a must-have and I don't have it (the cheapest solution may be to buy the import-only Amarantine: Special Christmas Edition, an album I already own the original version of).
In my 11/11/08 post, I noted that both Enya and Mannheim Steamroller had come out with Christmas-themed albums on the same day. And Winter Came... was Enya's release that day and if you take away the song I discussed in that post, "Trains and Winter Rains," along with the rockin' "My! My! Time Flies!" (which just happen to be the first two tracks on last year's Very Best of Enya CD/DVD) what you're left with is like a new version of Shepherd Moons. The title track on And Winter Came... encapsulates the season almost as well as the title track on Shepherd Moons. The second track, "Journey of the Angels" takes me back to "Angeles" and "Last Time By Moonlight" is like the new "Marble Halls." The third track, "White Is in the Winter Night," is the new gift shopping/elf toymaking addition. The fourth track, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" is the new midnight Mass carol. I'm hardly the first person to suggest that Enya's albums all sound the same and I won't be the last that honestly doesn't care. Ireland's other, bigger, musical export to the world, U2, also cranks out albums which all sound the same to me and I'm fine with that as well (I like their "Christmas Baby Please Come Home" on the aforementioned charity compilation, A Very Special Christmas). There are lots of excessive and redundant holiday traditions and I'll take them all, thank you much.
1 comment:
There is no shame in Enya
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