Amarantine

Artist: Enya
Type: Album
Release date: 2005
Run time: 45:34
My Rating: 10

1. Less than a pearl (3:44)
2. Amarantine (3:12)
3. It's in the rain (4:08)
4. If I could be where you are (4:00)
5. The river sings (2:49)
6. Long long journey (3:17)
7. Sumiregusa (4:42)
8. Someone said goodbye (4:02)
9. A moment lost (3:08)
10. Drifting (4:11)
11. Amid the falling snow (3:38)
12. Water shows the hidden heart (4:39)

Comments

This long-awaited* album is not only Enya's longest album to date, but also her most dynamic release yet. As well as the usual beautiful ethereal vocal tracks, there are gems like the remarkably clear-voiced "It's in the rain", and the dramatic "The river sings". The latter is my new favourite Enya track and is not dissimilar to some of Clannad's output.

Interestingly, as well as "Sumiregusa" being in Japanese (it was originally recorded for an advertising campaign), three of the songs are in Loxian, a language invented by Roma Ryan. That's sorta weird. How about a track in Klingon next time?

The only real flaw, if it can be called that, is that "Water shows the hidden heart" isn't really powerful enough to end the album on, and as a result, it just seems to stop dead without any sort of climax. This isn't a huge problem, really.

* Is five years between albums going to be the norm now? That's depressing!