Enya (album)

Background and recording

Following her work on the soundtrack to the romantic comedy film The Frog Prince (1984), Enya's first major project as a solo artist followed when, in 1985, she was invited by producer Tony McAuley to compose a track for his BBC television documentary series The Celts. As a coincidence, Enya had recorded a track named "March of the Celts" before she was asked to be involved, and decided to submit it to the project. Initially, each episode of the series was to feature a different composer, but series director David Richardson liked Enya's track so much, he commissioned her to compose the entire score.

Enya worked with her usual recording partners, arranger and producer Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan. The album was recorded in two locations; at Aigle Studios, a 16-track studio installed in the Ryan's home, then located in Artane, a northern suburb of Dublin, and a sound studio at BBC Enterprises at Wood Lane, London. When they recorded at the BBC studio, Nicky had to teach the audio engineers how he and Enya worked as their unusual recording process confused them at first. Nicky said he told them "to forget everything [they had] learned and just bear with us for at least a week". One such example was Nicky's use of reverb, which he set to 24 seconds instead of the more common placement of one-and-a-half seconds.

A total of 72 minutes of music was recorded for the series. Roma recalled that Enya was given "various pastiches" that Richardson wished to incorporate into the episodes which Enya then used as a guide for to write music to complement them. Enya includes 39 minutes of selected pieces from the soundtrack. The album's front cover depicts Enya posing with stuffed wolves.

Music and lyrics

Several of the album's track titles are titled or based on various historical figures and stories. In writing about the song in 2002, Roma pointed out that "Aldebaran" is named after the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus. In the Arabic language, the title translates to "the follower" as it follows the Pleiades cluster of stars, and the song is based on future Celtic people "passing Aldebaran on their journey to new territories, continuing their migratory pattern which was so predominant in their early history." The track was recorded in its entirety at Aigle Studio as Nicky expressed the difficulty in having to recreate the recording process elsewhere. "The Celts" was used as the main title theme for the television series. "Boadicea", which means "victorious", is a reference to the queen Boudica of the British-Celtic Iceni tribe in East Anglia who led a resistance against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire in 60 A.D., but was defeated and subsequently poisoned herself. As a song about her was already written, Richardson wished for a new track that depicted the idea of "being spellbound" by Boudica, which turned into "I Want Tomorrow". In the liner notes of the album's 1992 reissue, "I Want Tomorrow" is described, simply, as "thoughts of the present" and "March of the Celts" "echoes from the past". "Deireadh an Tuath", which translates from Irish as "End of the Tribe", refers to past spirits and the fertile soil that helps ensure the future of the Celtic people, which is celebrated in the annual Gaelic festival Samhain, held on 31 October. "The Sun in the Stream" was inspired by the legend of the Salmon of Knowledge, a creature written about in various texts in Irish mythology who "possessed all the truth in the world".

"Fairytale" is a track based on a story of early Irish literature about "love, jealousy, secrets and endurance" between Midir, a fairy king, and his love for a princess, Étaín. In the story, Etain is banished and transformed into a pool of water and emerges from it as a butterfly. "Epona" is the name of the horse goddess Epona of the Gallo-Roman religion. "Triad" is a track formed of three sections; "St. Patrick" is a traditional song that refers to St. Patrick who spent six years in captivity after he was captured by the Celtic people. The second part, "Cú Chulainn", Irish for "hound of Cullan", is named after the culture hero Cú Chulainn. "Oisin", the final section, meaning "little fawn", is based on the mythological character Oisín. "Bard Dance" refers to the bard, a man of ancient Celtic times who entertained the king. "Dan y Dŵr", which translates to "Under the Water" in the Welsh language, is based on the intentional flooding of the village of Capel Celyn in Wales in order to accommodate a reservoir.

Release

Enya was released on CD, audio cassette, and vinyl in March 1987 by BBC Records the United Kingdom, two months before the series aired on television. The album was released in the United States by Atlantic Records which categorised it as a New-age album and placed an imprint saying so on the disc, which Nicky Ryan later thought was "a cowardly thing to do". The album gained enough public interest to reach number 8 on the Irish Albums Chart. In the United Kingdom, it entered the UK Albums Chart at number 79 for the week of 6 June 1987, climbing to its peak of number 69 on its fourth and final week on the chart, the week of 27 June.

Enya released "I Want Tomorrow" as a single in 1987 as a 7-inch compact disc with "The Celts" as the B-side. A maxi single was also released with the aforementioned tracks and "To Go Beyond (I)" and "To Go Beyond (II)". Following the album's reissue in 1992, "The Celts" was released as a single with "Eclipse", a previously unreleased track from the Enya sessions, as a B-side. Another unreleased track, "Spaghetti Western Theme from The Celts", was released in 2005 as a B-side for Enya's 2005 single "Amarantine". It was released in memory of McAuley following his death in 2003.

Filmmaker David Bickley reused music from the soundtrack in The Memory of Earth, an instalment in his documentary trilogy Mythological Lands. "Boadicea" was also used in the soundtrack of the 1992 American film Sleepwalkers. "Epona" appears in the 1991 Steve Martin romantic comedy L.A. Story.

1992 reissue

In 1992, after Enya gained worldwide commercial success with her following two albums Watermark (1988) and Shepherd Moons (1991) for Warner Music, Enya was remastered by Arun Chakraverty and redesigned with new artwork designed by Sooky Choi with photography by David Scheinmann. The album was then reissued in November 1992 as The Celts by Warner Music internationally and Reprise Records in the United States. The Celts outperformed its original sales, reaching a new peak of number ten on the UK Albums Chart for two weeks from the week of 28 November 1992. It returned for two separate weeks 1993, one week in 1996, and six consecutive weeks in 1998. In the United States, the album sold a further one million copies. It contains an new version of "Portrait" that is named "Portrait (Out of the Blue)", which was originally released as the B-side to Enya's 1988 worldwide hit single, "Orinoco Flow". In 2009, The Celts had a limited Japanese reissue on Super High Material CD with "Eclipse" added as a bonus track.

Sampling of "Boadicea"

"Boadicea" has been sampled by numerous artists. The Fugees sampled it for their song "Ready or Not" on The Score (1996). A lawsuit against the group for copyright infringement was prepared as they had not asked for permission and did not give her credit. However, after Enya found the group were not gangsta rappers, Enya she decided not to follow through with the suit. As a compromise, later pressings of The Score included stickers placed on the cover giving Enya credit.

In 2003, Mario Winans sampled "Boadicea" for his song "I Don't Wanna Know". Producer P. Diddy personally contacted Enya for permission and gave her 60 percent of the royalties, and included her name on the song's subtitle as "Mario Winans featuring Enya and P. Diddy". It went on to reach No. 2 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart in 2004. "Boadicea" was sampled on the single "You Should Really Know" by The Pirates featuring Shola Ama, Naila Boss and Ishani which peaked at No. 8 in the UK. "Boadicea" with "Ready or Not" was sampled by Nina Sky on their single "Time to Go" featuring Angie Martinez, from the mixtape presented by Cipha Sounds. In 2008, Italian DJ Francesco Zeta sampled "Boadicea" for his song "Fairyland". In 2011, a small sample of "Boadicea" was used on "Der erste Winter" by German singer Cassandra Steen for the album Mir so nah. She made another version the following year, subtitled "ReAmp", that also used the sample. In 2012, hip hop artist Meek Mill sampled "Boadicea" on his mixtape Dreamchasers 2 on a song named after the Fugees' song, "Ready or Not". In 2016, Salvatore's song "Dive" sampled "Boadicea", and Enya was credited as a featured artist.

Critical reception

Enya/The Celts received mixed reviews from music critics.

Track listing

All music composed by Enya; all music arranged by Enya and Nicky Ryan; all lyrics by Roma Ryan, except where noted below.

Personnel