Product Description

The multi-million selling queen of Celtic new age ends the five-year hiatus since 2000's 'A Day Without Rain' with this, her sixth studio album. Feverishly anticipated by her devoted fanbase, it does little to mess with her tried and tested formula of haunting, multi-overdubbed vocals and trancelike, Celtic-influenced synthesizer melodies, except that on this album she sings in more languages than before. Produced by her long-term collaborator Nicky Ryan, it includes the title-track single. This special Christmas edition includes a bonus disc of four festive favourites covered in Enya's inimitable style.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Less Than A Pearl
2. Amarantine
3. It's In The Rain
4. If I Could Be Where You Are
5. River Sings
6. Long Long Journey
7. Sumiregusa
8. Someone Said Goodbye
9. Moment Lost
10. Drifting
11. Amid The Falling Snow
12. Water Shows The Hidden Heart

Disc 2:

1. Adeste Fideles
2. Magic Of The Night
3. We Wish You A Merry Christmas
4. Christmas Secrets

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37447 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-13
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
From the first blanket of choral voices awash in reverb, Amarantine is instantly recognizable as a product of Enya, the Irish chanteuse who has created a genre unto herself. The triumvirate of Enya, lyricist Roma Ryan and producer Nicky Ryan work the formula they perfected on Watermark, layering her voice in lush choirs pushed along by pizzicato synth strings, swooning orchestral pads, and harpsichord arpeggios. On tracks like "Less Than a Pearl" and "Drifting," Enya flirts with a timeless sound born in gothic chants and hymns. The former is one of three songs that she sings in Roma Ryan's fictitious language of Loxian. It seems to free her, especially on "The River Sings," a veritable rave-up where she gets the tribal choir going in the style of Scottish mouth music. But to get there you have to slog through slo-mo ballads that manage to be dirge-like and singsong at the same time, like the Carpenters on Quaaludes. The relatively restrained arrangement of "It's in the Rain" almost attains a folk-like simplicity that Enya hasn't experienced since she sang with her siblings in Clannad a quarter-century ago. Amarantine sounds like it was born in cloistered solitude, self-referentially echoing Enya albums past. --John Diliberto

Customer Reviews

Completely sumptuous - but I admit to being biased.
I admit it, I am a massive fan of Enya, from the moment I heard Orinoco Flow. I have all her albums, singles and compilations. In my book, she was the start of New Age music. So, I admit to being biased! Her albums take a while to make and the wait is difficult to take. However, when she releases an album, she delivers a 4 or 5 star album.

I agree with the sentiments from Paul of the Netherworld, my fellow reviewer from Brighton who, in his review of the CD single of Amarantine, spoke about other music which exists and tends to dominate the charts.

In the desert, there is always an oasis, and in today's predominantly arid music scene, here is that oasis - another lovely Enya album. The title track is quite similar to "Only Time", and the album reminds me of "A Day Without Rain", except that Enya sings in Japanese, as well in Loxian, the elvish language 'invented' by Roma Ryan, Enya's lyricist. The album shows that Enya has again, made most (not all) of her fans happy. The album is slightly short but, with quality this high, that is not an issue for this reviewer. There are great tracks to sing along too, and her voice, the overdubbing harmonies and the understated instrumentation, make this another lovely album.

The Christmas disk, four tracks released as a CD single as well as a Christmas extra to the original album has, again, all the hallmarks of Enya's music, beautiful musical arrangements overlaid with glorious, multi-tracked voices.

Four tracks: "Adeste, Fideles" (or "O Come All Ye Faithful", sung in Latin) is just wonderful and should be a Christmas number 1 (it's the second song on the "It's In The Rain" single (see my review of that); "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", as you've never heard it sung before (it's had an Enya makeover and sounds like Christmas Pudding with Brandy Butter) given to someone who can't get enough of it, it's so good; and two original Enya/Roma Ryan songs - "The Magic Of The Night" and "Christmas Secrets", two more beautiful tracks, which make this EP just about the best thing since Turkey and all the trimmings! This is a sheer delight, which you can wallow in if you so desire.

Completely sumptuous!