Paint The Sky With Stars

Enya - Reprise Records

Enya has a built-in fan base for her hymn-like, Celtic-flavored music that will be growing with the release of her latest, a greatest-hits collection. On this exquisite disc, the Irish singer's ethereal warblings and harmonies create a sense of musical mysticism.

Paint the Sky With Stars is a powerful, 16-song, career-spanning compilation that clearly was pressed for those who are unfamiliar with the woman's work, rather than for New Age fanatics looking for music to polish their healing crystals to. Newcomers will be pleased at how pop-oriented her classical and traditional-Celtic aesthetics are.

Her most-recognized pieces, such as "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)," "Anywhere Is" and "Boadicea," are represented here, as are many lesser-known yet pretty tunes.

This is background music as beautiful as you could hope for. "Paint the Sky" has a consistently uplifting quality laced into its soothing, acoustic nature. Even though Enya is far from being an outsider, in her musical experimentation she is unique; no one else in contemporary music is doing quite what she does.

This is an album that has the odd but nice ability to draw upon the listener's poetic soul to dovetail into and complete the painting Enya starts with her voice.

Note: Transcribed by Tomás Román.