The Very Best of Enya

Background

After promoting her seventh studio album And Winter Came... (2008), Enya's label Warner Music requested that she release a new greatest hits album of her favourite songs of her career. She agreed to the project, and chose a selection with her longtime collaborators, producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan. It is Enya's first greatest hits release since Paint the Sky with Stars (1997), but unlike the first collection, Enya did not record new tracks for the release. It includes a previously unreleased version of "Aníron" a song Enya wrote for the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). The DVD included in the album's Limited and Deluxe Editions marks the first release of Enya's music videos in North America, following the cancellation of the proposed The Video Collection in 2001.

Release and reception

The album was released on 23 November 2009 by Warner Music internationally and on 1 December 2009 by Reprise Records in the United States. It peaked at number 32 on the UK Albums Chart and number 55 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. It spent a total of 56 weeks at number one on the Billboard New Age Albums chart.

The Very Best of Enya received mostly positive reviews from music critics. James Christopher Monger of Allmusic says that the trio seems enamoured by most of the same songs that the general public is, resulting in one of those rare “greatest-hits” collections that goes deep without depriving the listener of the essentials. With tunes like "Orinoco Flow", "Caribbean Blue" and "Book of Days" in the pot and out of the way, it’s easier to appreciate hidden gems like "Cursum Perficio", "Boadicea", "Trains and Winter Rains" and "Anywhere Is".

Track listing

The Very Best of Enya — Limited and Deluxe Edition DVD

1. "Orinoco Flow"
2. "Caribbean Blue"
3. "Only Time"
4. "The Celts"
5. "Amarantine"
6. "Trains and Winter Rains"
7. "Evening Falls..."
8. "Anywhere Is"
9. "It's in the Rain"
10. "Wild Child"
11. "Only If..."
12. "Storms in Africa"
13. "On My Way Home"
14. Enya: A Life in Music documentary
15. The Making of Caribbean Blue documentary
16. The Making of Only Time documentary

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's sleeve notes.