No, I'm only kidding, seeing as Enya's "Watermark" is really something more akin to musical phenobarbitol. This album, which I've been hearing winding out from the living room for the past week since my roommate brought it home from the library, is so slow it almost requires time-lapse photography to see it move. The big hit "Orinoco Flow" that we all remember as a surprise top ten fixture in the late eighties is offered here. That one isn't busting out all over like a disco sex machine, but even as such it's more dynamic than almost the whole rest of the album combined.
Songs like the vast "Storms in Africa" and "The Long Ships" are definitely pretty, the former (which singlehandedly yielded this album an extra star) soars with a lofty, airy melody and the latter has some rich definition in its progression of chords, but in all honesty I have a hard time telling some of these songs apart. There are two recurrent themes on all the numbers except "Orinoco Flow", which are: 1) strong Celtic (Irish) melodic themes and traditionally influenced vocals and 2) beaucoup studio processing---mostly in the form smothering oceans of reverb (an electronic effect that the sound is passed through to make it sound echoy and distant). There is so much reverb on this album you could squeeze it out and take a bath in it with some "Mr. Bubble".
The whole feel of the album, in fact, is remarkably "wet", which I'm sure was the intention (this "Watermark" is likely to leave one on the coffee table). But the uniform extreme to which this approach was taken, combined with Enya's inherently dreamy, billowy vocal style, and the layers of synthesizers, make for an album which is just a bit too sleepy for me. I almost start reaching for the "snooze" button after it's been on for a while.
Enya herself, late of the outstanding '70's/early '80's Celtic pop/folk band Clannad (see my review of their wonderful '76 release, Dulaman)) is an inspiring singer, and some of the songs (mostly "Storms..." and "The Long Ships") are well composed, but overall this album is only good for those who want *very* dense atmospherics of the lazy-lidded variety. I'm only marginally recommending it for that reason.
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