Enya - Dark Sky Island (2015) Deluxe Edition

After 75 million sales; four Grammy Awards; six World Music Awards; an Ivor Novello, an Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination; and seven studio albums (plus the ‘Paint The Sky With Stars’ compilation) which have hit the upper echelons of charts all over the world, Enya will embark upon a new chapter in her spectacular career with the November 20th release of her new album Dark Sky Island. The Enya creative triumvirate – Enya, producer and sound engineer Nicky Ryan, and lyricist Roma Ryan – started work on the album in the spring of 2012. Inspired by Roma’s work on a series of poetry books themed around islands and specifically the island of Sark’s decision to be designated as a dark sky island, the album’s title track was the first song to be written for the collection. The album’s buoyantly optimistic first single ‘Echoes in Rain’ possesses an irresistible surge of globe-trotting euphoria which made it an obvious choice as the album’s lead track. While it shares the adventurous themes of Enya’s breakthrough hit ‘Orinoco Flow’, its rhythmic march instead celebrates the anticipation of a journey’s end. ‘Echoes in Rain’ also shares another coincide with its famous predecessor. Back in 1988, ‘Orinoco Flow’ was the final song that was recorded during sessions for the ‘Watermark’ album and it went on to become a global success. This time around, ‘Echoes in Rain’ was the final track to be completed for the album and has also been chosen as the lead single. Sonically, Dark Sky Island is a collection that’s both incredibly diverse and innately unified by the production: almost Spector-esque in its lavish, wide-screen multi-tracked layers of sound. Opening track ‘The Humming’ is an immediate highlight as it subliminally works its infectious magic within the course of a single listen. By contrast, ‘Even In The Shadows’ pulses with an insistent rhythm; the hymnal ‘I Could Never Say Goodbye’ is sparse in its reflective beauty; while ‘Sancta Maria’ blends synthesisers and classical instrumentation to create an ethereal soundscape that comfortably sits in both the past and the future. It’s almost a history of sound encapsulated in four hypnotic and otherworldly minutes. “This album has a theme of journeys,” states Enya. “Journeys to the island; through the length of a lifetime; through history, through emotions; and journeys across great oceans. So although it’s not a ‘themed’ album, as such, we nevertheless have an underlying connection between songs.” That concept can be demonstrated in ‘The Humming’, a song that muses on the cycle of the universe and how change affects everything. Such intergalactic exploration also extends to ‘The Forge of the Angels’ and ‘The Loxian Gates’ which continue the use of the Loxian language that Roma created and popularised with three songs from 2005’s ‘Amarantine’. It’s a futuristic narrative with a genesis that dates back to 1986 and Enya’s debut album / soundtrack to the BBC documentary The Celts.

Since the late '80s, Irish singer/composer Enya has become the most unlikely of international stars, delivering lush, Celtic-driven pseudo-classical odes in her signature Wall of Sound vocal style, rarely granting interviews, never touring, and generally taking as much time as she wishes between albums. Bucking odds and industry trends, her popularity has remained steadfast, allowing her to become the best-selling Irish solo artist of all time. Following 2008's snowbound And Winter Came, her silence stretched to eight years – the longest of her career – before the mists once again parted to reveal her eighth album, the evocatively titled Dark Sky Island. Named for Sark, the smallest of Britain's Channel Islands and first in the world receive the Dark Sky designation for its lack of light pollution, it has all the thematic and sonic hallmarks typical of an Enya release but with significantly more highlights than on her two prior works. Since the release of her 1986 debut, changes in her overall approach have been subtle and critics have often derided her for her unwavering dedication to dated, late-'80s synth patches and her reliance on formulaic methods, but Enya's consistency is actually one of her greatest assets. Her low public profile – especially in the age of social media – demands that her music remains the sole focus, and even if she and collaborators Roma and Nicky Ryan choose to keep working within their unique, self-designed milieu, it's one that they own completely and have nurtured over the years. Opening track "The Humming," with its eerie staccato swing and mystical musings on the cycles of the universe, is one of the strongest tracks she's produced in decades and resembles a dark cousin to 1991's masterwork "Caribbean Blue." Inspired lead single "Echoes of Rain" also harkens back to her Shepherd Moons heyday and features some fine, cascading piano work amid the pulsing strings and exalted vocal layers. Dark Sky Island also marks the return of Loxian, a language lyricist Roma Ryan first created for Enya on 2005's Amarantine and which is used here on the lavish march "The Forge of Angels" and the powerful "The Loxian Gate," which again echoes early Watermark-era standouts like "Storms in Africa" and "The Longships." While it would be unfair to call Dark Sky Island a throwback, it does manage to harness some of the power and creativity of Enya's early days and pairs it with both the confidence and shadows of age.

Review by Timothy Monger, Allmusic.com

Tracklist:

01. The Humming… (03:45)
02. So I Could Find My Way (04:25)
03. Even In The Shadows (04:14)
04. The Forge Of The Angels (05:14)
05. Echoes In Rain (03:35)
06. I Could Never Say Goodbye (03:29)
07. Dark Sky Island (04:57)
08. Sancta Maria (03:51)
09. Astra Et Luna (03:21)
10. The Loxian Gate (03:34)
11. Diamonds On The Water (03:35)
12. Solace (03:58)
13. Pale Grass Blue (03:34)
14. Remember Your Smile (02:57)