A DREAM MAKER

I am 18 and i fell in love her music. Enya makes you cry, smile, and remember the good old days. Enya should be consider as a goddess to the world.

Beautiful

The problem with Enya is that she is so consistently good. It is difficult to write a review that says something different from previous reviews (having recently reviewed "A Day without Rain" and previously "Watermark"). The same words, ethereal, ephemeral, airy, haunting, and spiritual apply to each album. The only risk is that my reviews become boring, because Enya could never be.



This CD begins with the instrumental track "Memory of Trees." While "Memory of Trees" is nominally an instrumental, there are voices that punctuate portions of the music. This opening feels optimistic, though the title feels as though it is vaguely related to forests and lands gone by. The vocals provide a chorale sound that builds and cascades around you with the feeling of great trees and landscapes greater than any of the puny works of mankind. Great beasts wander about and smaller beasts enter and exit the brush at the edges of clearings in the great forest in a celebration of nature.



The pace speeds up in the peppy "Anywhere Is." The lyrics are poetic and symbolic and are a mirror maze of mental images. As is frequently typical of Enya the lyrics seem to make sense until you attempt to understand them and then their meaning escapes your grasp. In this case the song seems to be describing the paths we take in life and the choices that we make, and whether they can be unmade, and even whether the choices take us to or from the one we love. Another unusual feature of this song is the predominant instruments which compete for attention with Enya's voice. Typically Enya's voice stands out clearly from the instruments, which in this case are mostly strings and piano.



"Pax Deorum" is somewhat ominous, and fits with the following song, "Athair Ar Neamh." Both songs are simple songs that relate to God. "Pax Deorum" translates roughly as "The Peace of the Gods," or seeking to placate the gods. "Athair Ar Neamh" translates approximately as "Father in Heaven." Note that the title of the latter song appears as a line in the former song, tying both songs together, and placing an Irish Gaelic line into a Latin song. There are moments of choral lightness in the otherwise ominous "Pax Deorum," which I believe has appeared as the background music for a commercial. The latter song is more contemplative and ethereal and Enya allows the beauty of her voice to caress and harmonize the Irish Gaelic verses.



"From Where I Am" is a relatively sedate instrumental that forms a brief piano interlude leading into "China Roses." This song manages to capture the wonder of the universe and the beauty of heaven all in one song. This song transcends the poetic to the surrealistic both lyrically and vocally. Once again Enya allows her voice to be a beautiful instrument to complement the strings and piano to create a work of aural art.



"Hope Has a Place" is the first song where the lyrics are relatively easy to understand. The concept is simple: there is always hope where there is love. The vocals are beautiful (again) and may remind a listener of the song Enya wrote for "The Lord of the Rings." This song is for romantics and candle-lit dinners everywhere.



Another instrumental interlude follows. "Tea-House Moon" has some of the most interesting instrumental effects on this CD. The mood is contemplative and traditional, though with a vaguely Asian flavor. This instrumental is the music for a heavenly choreography.



The next song changes style, again, and yet fits within the character of the album. "Once You Had Gold" seems to allude to the transitory nature of all things, perhaps most particularly life. There are lines that seem to say that things come and things go, and you need to accept the joys that you can get just from being here to greet the new day. I particularly like the last line which says that there are no promises in life, that there is good and bad and that one must make the best of any situation. The song is sung in a fairy tale style, a cautionary tale young and old.



The next song translates as "The Dreamer." The music tells you all you need to know about the words, which are surrealistic and, of course, dream-like. The ephemeral lyrics and music bespeaks an atmosphere, a feeling, a place that can only exist in our dreams, though we might wish otherwise. This song nearly achieves allowing us to be a creation of our imagination.



At last we must awaken from the fantasy Enya has woven for us. "On My Way Home" returns us to this place and time, but with a longing for the place we leave, the poetry that has been woven for us. Yet, we rejoice for we return to a place of familiarity, and still, there is the memory, yes indeed, "The Memory of Trees."

Enya Is An Angel

Some people wonder if a 24kt Gold CD is worth buying. Let me tell you, being that I own the regular version as well, it's almost like going from stereo to Dolby Digital. This disc also comes with a bonus booklet with some very beautiful pictures of Enya, many I've never seen elsewhere, with japanese writing all over it. This has my 2nd favorite cover (Shepherd Moons is my first). After you see the cover and open the case the inside reveals the same picture but with her head down (as if she is crying). Pax Deorum sounds really good. Many people don't realise it was used as music for the trailer to the film, Dragonheart. One technical note for those people buying Paint The Sky With Stars to save money, when you buy it, the China Roses track is cut off by Shepherd Moons. You only get the complete fade out here on this disc. There's not more to say other than I am 25 and have been listening to Enya since I was a teenager. She's beautiful and has the voice of an Angel. I wish more female vocalists would aspire to be more like her instead of, well, you know. Bottom Line:24kt Gold Discs are worth it.

Pure and utterly beautiful ...

Some music touches your heart in ways nothing else can. This CD contains just such music. This music is atmospheric and uplifting. Enya has a voice like fine crystal, pure and beyond compare. The most beautiful track on this CD is Athair Ar Nearmh - it has crystal clear beauty of such quality that you can only imagine the angels of heaven being capable of achieving it - you just need to close your eyes and feel the beauty of it. I am in complete awe ...

Pure Beauty

Music from Heaven; her songs touch your soul like none can.

The album for a romantic autumn evening

Enya is one of of the most mysterious singers in music today. I consider her to be one of the few female singers who in my opinion can still make some great angelic melodies that don't sound banal or cheap even though some of her songs are so short as to be almost like unfinished demo tapes( Will she someday produce and compose a song that is about eight ot nine minutes long). The Memory Of Trees is my second favorite CD of hers behing Watermark which I consider to be her strongest outing to date. I doubt Enya will topple Watermark to tell you the truth.

Many people say that this is a sunny album. Well, it is kind of true. The sunniness is evidenced on the title track, Anywhere Is, and the Orinoco Flow-esque On My Way Home. Generally I think of this album as an album for a cloudy, romantic autumn evening with the leaves a bright red, orange and yellow. Several songs are quite dark and cloudy but not stormy like let's say Storms In Africa, Exile, or creepy like Evening Falls. This album is a gorgeous musical journey that trancends boundaries. I find this to be like the darker companion to the sunniness of A Day Without Rain which followed this one five years later.

I usually go with the darker material that Enya does but I enjoy the brighter material as well( I love music that is dark and stormy).

The title track is a gorgeous instrumental that has Enya returning to the days of the Celts CD. Instead of the usual piano instrumental that introduced us to Watermark, Shephard Moons, and A Day Without Rain we get a song that is more synthesized and with thundering beats to bop your head to combined with Enyas multilayered vocals that starts out as a cloudy minor note and after about 30 seconds it morphs into a major note to give an impression of the sun shining through the clouds on a warm autumn afternoon. This song is more similar to the Celts than the piano instrumentals of most of her albums although this song is much brighter than the Celts title track. Anywhere Is is like the blueprint of Enyas big-selling A Day Without Rain. It's a very bright, sunny song with rhythm that could make you almost bop your head along with. This song is more legato although there are hints of the staccato pizzicato strings that would dominate a lot of Enyas A Day Without Rain. I love the quiet middle part of the song. It kind of reminds me of the quiet bridge of Orinoco Flow a few years before then. After the sunniness we head into darker, mistier territory of Pax Deorum. This song is another dark almost Gothic piece that features Enya singing in Latin with a very misty feel. In the middle of the song the rhythm pauses and the sing becomes a major note for about a minute giving an imression of the sun breaking through the dark clouds. I consider this to be Enyas best 'Gothic' song to this day. It's almost like the darker side of Heaven if you could call it that. The song reverts back into a dark misty minor note song. Athair Ar Neamh is a very sad, cloudy evening song that features Enya singing in Gaelic. This song is a very beautiful, theme for a guy who is having a lonely summer. The song ends in a major note key like the sun breaking out just before it goes down. From Where I am is a beautiful piano instrumental. China Roses is a gorgeous, breathtaking, ambient song that made me get this album. It's one of Enyas most stunning compositions to date in my opinion. China Roses is a very romantic song that brings up images two lovers walking alongside the waterfront with the red leaves falling onto the surface of a pond with a large garden of roses and a huge crystal castle in the background. China Roses is one of Enyas most brilliant songs to this day. This song is the winner on the Memory Of Trees. Hope Has A Place is a another beautiful song that is similar to China Roses although not quite as powerful or mind- stimulating but still great. This song is a song about how hope is still existant even in bleak situations. This song reminds me of How Can I Keep From Singing from Shepard Moons. Tea-House Moon is one of the best Enya instrumentals I have ever listened to. It's a very stunning song with high pitched synths in the background with electronic synths in the foreground. This song is one to enjoy when it's cloudy and the red leaves are falling to the ground. This song is one of my favorites off this CD. Once You Had Gold is one song that you probably shouldn't play if you have not had much sleep because it's one song that will sooth your soul. I fell asleep in class a few times in the past listening to this song *giggles*. This song though is great though. I enjoy it alot on a cloudy evening. La Sonadora is a very haunting song that features Enya singing in Spanish. This song is very dark and spooky although not stormy or scary as let's say Exile, Storms In Africa or the dynamite Na Leatha Geal M'Oige but this song is one of the darker songs off this album. The chants remind me a bit of Smaointe from a decade ago. We brighten up again with the closing track On My Way Home. This song that contains many elements of the 1988 hit Orinoco Flow although not as spooky as that one. This song is much brighter than Orinoco and happier. This song is like the predecessor to the brightness of A Day Without Rain that followed this one five years later...

I consider this to be one of Enyas strongest albums to date. Only Watermark surpasses this one and it's not by too much. I strongly recommend that all Enya fans buy this amazing masterpiece. It's gorgeous and an album for the soul...