Enya: Watermark [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This pressing comes with a printed lyric inner sleeve. Watermark went quadruple platinum in both the UK and the US, and "Orinoco Flow" spent three weeks at No. 1 in the UK.

This edition

• Printed lyric inner sleeve

About the album

Record executives aren't known for handing artists unlimited time and no deadlines, but that's what happened after Warner chairman Rob Dickins heard Enya's debut and became a fan. She took ten months over Watermark with her longtime team, producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan, sketching it in Ireland before moving to London to re-record and mix it digitally.

The sound is all Enya: dozens of layered vocals stacked into a choir of one, keyboards and soft percussion, with Celtic melody running underneath. "Orinoco Flow" is the famous one, a buoyant, pizzicato voyage round the world, while "Storms in Africa" rolls in on heavy drums, "Cursum Perficio" is sung in Latin, "Evening Falls..." glows, and "Na Laetha Geal M'Oige" closes the album in Irish. Ross Cullum co-produced, and Rob Dickins himself took executive producer.

It reached No. 1 in New Zealand and Switzerland and No. 25 on the Billboard 200, and four singles went out around the world. Nicky Ryan's multitracking became her signature, and to this day nobody has managed to count all the Enyas on "Orinoco Flow," though we have had a few staff try.

Also at Kops: more Enya on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On WEA / Warner (cat# 24 38751), the 1988 album.