Warner
New Age, 2005

It has been five years since Enya’s A Day Without Rain, but Amarantine sounds shockingly like reject tracks from that CD clumsily thrown together to remind the world that Enya is still alive, well, and wanting our money. From the familiar arpeggios to the increasingly tired-sounding monotonous vocals, every track on this CD sounds exactly like something from Enya’s previous works. The same melodies, the same wah-wah-wah echo effect, the same strings overkill, the same everything. Amarantine is a creatively bankrupt piece of work.

Listening to Amarantine is like listening to some two-bit copycat trying to imitate the splendors of The Celts, Watermark, and Shepherd Moon. Sumiregusa and Long Long Journey on Amarantine are probably the two best tracks, which isn’t saying much, as they are watered down imitations of Enya’s better works from her above-mentioned previous CDs. If you must buy this dire CD, do take this CD, play it back to back with Shepherd Moon, and then don’t say I didn’t warn you.