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Lunch » Tags » Music » Reviews » And Winter Came

And Winter Came

1 rating: 1.0

New Age and World Music album by Enya

Twenty years after her landmarkWatermarkalbum, Enya's seventh studio disc,And Winter Camecontinues a phenomenally successful career that has included more than 70 million albums sold worldwide.And Winter Cameis an enchanting evocation of the changing … see full wiki

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1 review about And Winter Came

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And I Forgot That Winter Came

Sep 8, 2009

by ssjakira1

Rating:

Pros: Relaxing and nice to listen to at night.

Cons: Same ole Enya...not that much felt new.

The Bottom Line: If you enjoy Enya, you might like this CD...however it does sound pretty much like any other Enya CD without much change.

When Enya came out with And Winter Came, my mom was more interested in it than I was, which was kind of surprising since I don't think she owns anything by Enya.

But we got it for her for Christmas and of course, I had to have a listen. Granted, it's September now and I'm just reviewing it, but hey, think of it as better late than never.

Most of these songs are very similar to either each other or with other songs Enya has done. After all, it is Enya and her typical style, so it's difficult to get much variation. At least, I suspect that's the case. That's why when I went through these songs one by one, there was only so much I could say about them before pretty much covering their entirety.

1. And Winter Came... (3:15) Virtually instrumental aside from the soft, humming vocals. It's slow and relaxed and can make you think of falling snow on a winter evening.

2. Journey of the Angels (4:47) More slowness, humming, and soft singing by Enya. Very mellow, which makes it easy to gloss over despite it's near 5 minute run time.

3. White is In the Winter Night (3:00) A little more holiday-ish with the inclusion of some typical bells as well as the familiar jingle/sleigh bells. It's kind of an odd song because of the way it's sung - it has sort of a disjointed or jerky feeling. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this song.

4. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (3:40) The original song, but taken down several notches to nearly no instrumentation and done with mostly vocals. It's almost sadder, actually. There are a few times when louder vocals break in and they're a bit startling if you're not prepared for them.

5. Trains and Winter Rains (3:44) Echo-y and with a bit more of a snappy tempo, it's kind of an odd song. It shifts from giving me feelings of lightness to something a little darker. I don't really think of peppy city scenes, but instead (for some reason), more tarnished city train stops, like how they might have been in the 1930s. Weird.

6. Dreams Are More Precious (4:25) I could sort of picture people waltzing to this song. It's not a waltz of course, but it sort of sways gently to and fro. Again, reminds me of something else of hers I've heard.

7. Last Time By Moonlight (3:57) More relaxed, slightly lighter tones than before. Easy to zone out to.

8. One Toy Soldier (3:54) Ok, here you would expect something more toy-like or with different instruments to invoke that sort of feeling...but you won't get it. Aside from a tiny bit of wood clicking, it's still pretty mellow and the chorus continues on with the beat in a sort of abrupt tick-tock fashion. Meh.

9. Stars and Midnight Blue (3:08) Have we heard this song already? Quiet, echo-y, and fitting of the title I suppose.

10. Spirit of Christmas Past (4:18) That same Enya tempo is back (you'll recognize it, trust me) and we're back again with a song that has the same sort of beat, style, and just about everything else.

11. My! My! Time Flies! (3:02) Oh, I remember this one. Yeah. This was the one I didn't like. At all. It's.....odd. I mean, I appreciate Enya doing something different, but not like this. It's hard to even describe - for some reason I'm reminded of the style of a Beatles song, like da-da, da-da, da-da. And of course there's the random electric guitar... Yeah. Odd.

12. Oiche Chiuin (Chorale) (3:49) "Silent Night" in...Celtic maybe? I admit, I'm not sure. Soft chorus, different language, same familiar Christmas song.

I was hoping for something with more of a holiday feeling as opposed to what we got. Typical Enya. Now, I enjoy Enya, don't get me wrong, but I was disappointed with the repetition and similarities in this CD. I was hoping for more bells and twinkling sounds and all sorts of things that evoked thoughts and feelings of snow and ice and hot cocoa and holiday goodies. Buuuut not so. In fact, upon my first listen to this CD, I remember getting bored, ended up half-listening, and then when the CD was over I didn't even realize it right away. If a CD can't hold my attention, then that's not a good thing. Obviously, as you may notice above, I started to get impatient when it came to noting each individual song.

I own Enya's A Day Without Rain and I thoroughly enjoy that CD. It changes things up, the tracks take on different emotions and tempos and all sorts of things. These songs were all very, very similar and I wouldn't even notice when one song changed to another. Er, except for track 11. Eeh. Overall, it's solid Enya, but without much diversity. It's good for if you're sitting and reading a book a night or watching the snow fall, but if you're listening to it for music's sake, you'll probably start looking for something else to do after a few songs.

If you really like Enya, then go for it. If you enjoy Enya but don't need every CD, then wait for something better to come out.

NT

Recommended:
No

Great Music to Play While: Reading or Studying

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