Caribbean Blue

Caribbean Blue from ireland

25 comments
  1. I’ve heard a few extremely edgy indie musicians (folks like Gazelle Twin) make a good case for Enya lately that’s made me really rethink her stuff.

    Their point was that she used a lot more synths, in much weirder and more interesting ways, than she tends to get credit for, simply because she used them so well it formed a really coherent soundscape with more traditional instruments.

    I hadn’t really thought about her as an electronic innovator like that, so it made me curious to relisten and they have an interesting point.

    The example that came up was the above Carribbean Blue, which – if you can ignore the very twee video as you listen – has much stranger and more stylised sounds going on than I remembered, and when framed like that feels a long way ahead of its time.

    It’s only the way it all comes seamlessly together with her vocals, and the more classic instrumentation sounds, that obscures how innovative it would have been then (and is!)

    She blended synthesised sounds and effects into everything else so deftly that we take it for granted, but that and her style of vocal layering is a wheel we’re only really coming back around to inventing again now all these years later, with folks like Zola Jesus and Billie Eilish.

    Anyway, there you go, that turned me right around on my cultural cringe about Enya. Long may she reign.

  2. Unique music in the charts. Not seen in 30 years.

    Now carry on ‘slapping your bitch’ or whatever it is you do to create music now.

  3. The start sounds almost like an Oliver Heldens track intro. Took me a second listen and reading the comment about synth to realise that it’s not a harpsichord. Damn, way ahead of the rest of the world Enya

  4. Love a bit of Enya every now and again. She’s done incredibly well for herself, for somebody who can disappear for years at a time in between albums. The mystique around her, her unique voice and her image as this almost ethereal figure is what sells her internationally. Good on her anyway, her music is so relaxing.

  5. Enya seems to appeal more to people outside of Ireland than to Ireland itself. I’ve no idea why but never really hear her being talked about here by people.

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