'Booo she's actually making the same music with different titles bla bla bla, let me repeat myself, Enya is making the same music again bla bla bla.'Р”Р„nyone who has actually listened to her previous albums will tell you that this album is markedly different from anything she has done in the past. The trouble with stupid critics, is that they all set out to make the same click-baity, boring, tired, recycled commentary about how Enya supposedly doesn't deviate from her formula, and succeed. The trouble with Dark Sky Island is that it sets out to be a faded copy of earlier work, and succeeds. ItРІР‚в„ўs not that it sets out to be exciting and passionateР’В РІР‚вЂњ like Cheryl or Justin BieberР’В РІР‚вЂњ and fails annoyingly. ThereРІР‚в„ўs a case to be made with Watermark, but now, 25 years on, her approach is the same, just less energetic. Attempts are sometimes made to elevate some of EnyaРІР‚в„ўs earlier albums as innovative, even forward-looking in their generic cross-fertilisation. And what, please, is a РІР‚СљForge of the AngelsРІР‚Сњ? The airiness of angels and the clanking metalwork of a forge seem mutually exclusive, however you look at it, and the chanting soundtrack (admittedly in Loxian, Roma Ryan's made-up language) casts no light on the matter. РІР‚СљSancta MariaРІР‚Сњ is just those two words repeated over a bland waft of a tune and some opportunistic key-changes. Which brings with it, for much of the album, an inescapable sense of fatigue. The sheen of EnyaРІР‚в„ўs electronic sound hasnРІР‚в„ўt changed at all over the years, and is now not so much evocative of new age, as old age. The rest rely on repetition РІР‚вЂњ one personРІР‚в„ўs mesmeric is another personРІР‚в„ўs stultifying РІР‚вЂњ and sound-painting. Only the title track and РІР‚СљEchoes In RainРІР‚Сњ, the first single, have any narrative, and thatРІР‚в„ўs a bit fortune cookie-ish.

Unfortunately, with this, EnyaРІР‚в„ўs eighth solo album, she is not so much looking at a new, far-off galaxy, as she is in the mirror, at her last seven albums. Nearly 30 years after her solo debut, Dark Sky Island is apparently inspired by Roma RyanРІР‚в„ўs poetry about the Channel Island Sark, a so-called РІР‚Сљdark sky islandРІР‚Сњ РІР‚вЂњ one good for viewing the stars, that is. The composing now happens in a castle, but otherwise artistic vision and personnel remain unchanged. The sheen of EnyaРІР‚в„ўs electronic sound is now not so much evocative of new age, as old age Using multi-tracking, a shimmering electronic sound, and melodies that had a similar relationship with Irish folklore as an OРІР‚в„ўNeillРІР‚в„ўs pub, they created in the 1980s a style of soft-focus electro-folk so earwormingly catchy that РІР‚СљOrinoco FlowРІР‚Сњ, on her second, 1988 album Watermark, parked itself at number one for three weeks, and became the song Alan Partridge sings to himself.

Enya album 2015