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Enya initially entered the spotlight as a member of Clannad, but her solo endeavours would prove more profitable. She hit the top of the UK charts in 1988 with Orinoco Flow (sometimes known erroneously as Sail Away on account of its insistent vocal refrain), from her second solo album Watermark. It opens this collection, acting as an immediate reminder of the impact of her remarkable voice.
Another very familiar song featured here is Anywhere Is – it was a top ten hit in 1995, and is taken from Enya’s Grammy-winning The Memory of Trees album. The one previously unreleased track here, Aniron (I Desire), comes from the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Enya also wrote the ballad May It Be for Peter Jackson’s take on The Fellowship of the Ring, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2001 – the track closes this set. It’s interesting to note that Hollywood had beckoned earlier, when director James Cameron had invited Enya to write music for Titanic – she turned him down. However, her widescreen, cinematic Storms in Africa, another Watermark highlight, is an early example of why she has been courted by filmmakers ever since breaching the mainstream.
The well-known and much loved characteristics of her writing and performance style are much in evidence throughout this bumper bundle of hits. The muted choral writing wafts through the waltz tune of Caribbean Blue, Book of Days and A Day Without Rain as well as Cursum Perfico, in a minor key, which has a touch of Carl Orff’s choral extravaganza Carmina Burana, an aspect of this artist’s professed classical leaning. Ethereal reverberations echo through a jig, The Celts, with shades of The Scaffold’s Lily the Pink, and the singer’s full vocal powers are heard in the anthemic ballad Only Time.
Other manifestations of her art include a fondness for electronic writing, which runs through the Chopin-esque synthesiser keyboard scales of Aldebaran. Enya, like ABBA, has left an indelible and unmistakeable imprint on the popular music of her day, and this CD – also available in an expanded, bonus-DVD version, with some additional tracks – makes a most tempting seasonal offering. --Adrian Edwards
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Customer Reviews
Naturally quite a few of the songs on this CD (in fact about half the CD) are similar to Enya's previous greatest hits package (Paint The Sky With Stars - 1997). It contains all the biggest hits from that album, including many iconic numbers, such as 'Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)', 'Caribbean Blue', 'The Celts' and 'Anywhere Is'.
The rest of the album comprises her songs from 2000-2009. This is the first time these songs have been together on one disc - and so, this alone is a very good reason to buy this album. All of Enya's most popular UK singles from this era are here, including `Only Time`, `Amarantine`, `The Wild Child` and 'May It Be` from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.
The CD also features one track that has never been available on any Enya album before, `Aniron (I Desire)`, also taken from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.
Unfortunately charting singles like 'Evening Falls', 'How Do I Keep From Singing', 'On My Way Home', 'Only If' and 'It's In The Rain' are missing from this compilation, thus only 4 stars.
Please keep in mind that the CD track listing is different on the CD/DVD version.
I would still recommend `The Very Best Of Enya` to any music fan, as it is a clear explanation of why Enya is one of the most successful singers of all time. A true icon!
I am lucky enough to have a copy of 'Enya - The Enya Collection [DVD]' but that costs a small fortune now and is very hard to get hold of. As with that DVD, this latest collection contains thirteen DVDs and is exactly the same apart from two tracks being swapped. The older release has 'Exile' which is basically just extracts from the movie 'LA Story' and 'How Can I Keep From Singing?' but these are now missing and in their place we have 'Trains And Winter Rains' and 'It's In The Rain'. In my opinion these are better videos anyway so this makes it a worthwhile package.
Most Enya fans will have most of the tracks featured on the CD but it is the bonus of the DVD that will entice us to buy this and it really is worth shelling out the extra cash
The dvd brings the videoclips of some music, but I really missed May it be.
A "must have" for any fan.
Absolutely love the CD, been listening to Enya for years and this album builds on that, really relaxing when I'm stressed. Read more
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