The last review for Enya’s first widely recognized recording Watermark was six years ago. Why go back that far not only in a review but in time since it is 20 years since its release? There are perhaps cynical reasons, but there is something wider. How often do you look back at pictures that are 20 years old or older?
I do backward searching from time to time. Where I am now is part of where I was before—how sappy. I do this for a specific reason though, what I call “The Breakfast Club Moment.” At 17, that movie was the most profound piece of cinema I had ever seen. At 21 it was a vile piece of time I couldn’t get back and was embarrassed to have ever found important. So I look back at the forgotten gems and at the formerly hated to determine small things about myself that are selfish but cherished all the same.
What I once found calming I now find simplistic and dull. Apart from the “hit” “Orinoco Flow” (which I never liked) there is no energy in all but one song. Yes they are supposed to be meditative, but even liturgical chants have an energy to them (and this comes from a neverbeliever). To press the already thin metaphor, the songs are soulless.
The instrumentals are bland. Rather than feeling calmed—which is what I hoped since it has been well more than a dozen years since hearing it, I’m bored. To a certain extent, due to disappointment, I’m a bit angry.
The vocals are timid. Rather than being lullaby whispers like I once thought, it sounds like someone at karaoke who knows they can sing but are nervous in front of crowds so just whispers the lyrics—they are on key, but that’s the only thing I can say that is positive.
There are layers to songs like “The Longships” where there is more than one layer of instrument on top of another and at least two layers of lyrics. The song is tonal and ebbs and swells as would be part of a metaphor for boat-like themes, but the feeling isn’t tonal. The layering seems so heavy that I keep thinking that my ears are getting lost.
The only song I like is “Storms In Africa, Pt. 2.” The whisper crap is still there, but this is a song with a soul. It isn’t as loud as the famous “Orinoco” but it has the same level of a swell of energy that makes the song worth listening to several times in a row without it sounding repetitive.
I think that Watermark was the first wide release of New Age music and of the Gaelic that bands like Clannad had used but never broke through. The recording did what it was supposed to, but turning back to it . . . it fails to have any level of the peace I once got from it. I will say that Enya recordings after Watermark changed significantly in positive ways (which is one reason I believed I would find it here too). So while the breakthrough recording was mediocre at the very best, those to follow showed fast maturation.
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