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Enya - And Winter Came
- Winter or not, Enya’s newest album And Winter Came transports you into a beautiful world of ice and snow. Each track still has the regular Enya/Celtic sound, it’s almost an add on that this album is a holiday album. Enya has a great variation of tempo in her songs creating many different arrangements. If you are already an Enya fan, this album is a no brainer. If you aren’t this album is a great holiday album because it doesn’t sound like every other seasonal album. It can break the monotony of boring pop Christmas albums.
The album is beautifully started with the instrumental “And Winter Came” which quickly tells the listener that it’s not Autumn anymore. The piano melody is gorgeous and sets the tone of the rest of the album. I loved the arrangement of “O Come O Come Emmanuel.” The track is haunting and beautiful. It has an empty cathedral sound to it with the choral backup accenting the emptiness. “Trains and Winter Rains” has a darkness to it, but in the first 15 seconds of listening to it, you can quickly imagine something like movie “The Polar Express” where the train whooshes past a snowy backdrop. I was happily surprised by “My! My! Time Flies!” The track sounds just like something from The Beatles discography. It’s poppy and a genre that Enya isn’t known for, but it’s so catchy. Even the electric guitar solo in the song is beautifully placed.
The only ding that I really have for this album is that there tends to be a lot of voice echo and distortion. This becomes a plus if you ever listen to this album on a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker system because you become even more surrounded in the winter theme. Songs like “One Toy Soldier” and “Oíche Chiúin” (which is the Gaelic version of “Silent Night”) are beautiful in surround sound.
I recently had the chance to review Sarah Brightman’s A Winter Symphony and this album can show anyone how to correctly arrange the music so that it compliments, not overpowers, the singer. Enya’s voice is correctly placed above the melodies; there doesn’t have to be a full orchestra to create a stunning sound.
And Winter Came is a great album for playing in the background or even relaxing in the bathtub to. I could listen to this holiday album any time of the year. This album instantly takes me to a different place where I am cold and watching the forest animals prancing around trying to find nourishment. There are some people out there that don’t get or appreciate the Enya sound, but you can’t challenge the fact that this album is a magnificent Christmas album.
Reviewer: Michael Pascua
new
Reviewer's Rating: 10
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 1
Added: 26-Nov-2008
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