Have you ever found yourself standing at the grocery store checkout, staring in amazement at the junk being loaded by the people behind you onto the conveyor?
Oh, come on now, you know you do it! You were judging those folks for their lack of taste.
Yes, your daikon and heirloom tomatoes are far superior to...what is that? Hamburger Helper?! What kind of person eats that stuff?
The very same kind of thing happens with music. We know what kind of person listens to an Alabama or Mariah Carey CD...or George Winston. Or Elvis Costello.
Right. The problem is, we don't really know anything about these people. Oh, but that stereotype you were running your hands over...it felt nice, didn't it?
This is what has always bothered me about reviews that rush to employ easy categorization. The writer may think a service is being provided by steering listeners toward (or away from) a recording. What really happens is that the realm of possibilities is reduced.
Think about it. You don't like New Age (whatever that means) music...so you can't possibly like Enya, Ray Lynch, George Winston, Will Ackerman or Alex DeGrassi. Right? In reality, it doesn't work that way. Most genres have quite a number of sub-genres, often enough to render the 'main' category meaningless - especially when the name is flung around as a pejorative.
So I've seen Enya referred to as New Age. The words 'Celtic' and 'chanteuse' get worked in there as well. None of this gets close to the truth, which is...well, I'm not really sure.
I do know that I've always liked the atmosphere on her records. The feathered layers (often composed of many repetitions of Enya's voice) serve to support and highlight Enya's pure voice and circuitous melodies. And though melody has (finally!) returned to pop music, none of it dares to take the route of "Sumiregusa" from Amarantine. My favorite songs on this record, like most Enya albums going all the way back to Watermark (and to be honest, that Clannad song too), are the ones where her voice is the main event: "It's In The Rain", "A Moment Lost" and "Amid The Falling Snow".
Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
Very nice review! I am not a fan of all genres but there areartists I listen to that belong to all genres, if that makes sense.
2 - Mark Saleski
makes sense to me!
3 - Mary K. Williams
a vegan minivan driving Republican who thinks the Boss is over rated? I don't think so! Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?! : )~
4 - Mat Brewster
It's all true. Why I saw Mark the other day driving his mini van with the 'Vegans for Reagan' bumper sticker, with the stereo was blasting Lemmy reading a copy of On the Road.
5 - Mark Saleski
true...except that i was eating a slim jim while driving.
6 - Anna
Nice review! I've been a fan of Enya since the early 90s, and she's the only artist classified as New Age or Celtic that I keep coming back to.
7 - Franklin Weise
I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one that feels kind of embarassed by liking an artist which is labeled as "New Age". I haven't heard this last album, but I hope it is more inspired than her last album... I'm still waiting for such inspired songs as on "Watermark". By the way, I think that Enya doesn't fit in the "new age" genre anyway, I prefer considering her as a dreampop vs. celtic folk crossover.