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Enya, which the singer herself describes as a collective, rather than the vocalist herself, is that most rare of things, a musical act that is not only immensely original but also very successful. Sitting in second place only to U2 as Ireland most successful recording artists of all time, Enya have built an empire out of combining beautiful multi-layered vocals with keyboard washes of an almost classical nature. The nature of the music has not changed in any major way in the last twenty years since the singer jumped ship from her siblings in Clannad and went solo, but its enough to realise that when you are the best in the world at a certain style, particularly as its one that you have more or less created yourself, then why deviate from your chosen path. That's not to say there isn't any variation in her work, the combinations of classical choral vocalisation, pop melody and synthesised keyboard sounds provide a wide variety possibilities but by and large when you buy an Enya CD you pretty much know what you are going to get. But then you buy music for a whole range of reasons, some bands you want to push the boundaries and others are all about familiarity, and here we are definitely in the second camp. Amarantine, Enya's first full-length album in five years and coincidentally was released just after a similarly eagerly awaited comeback form Kate Bush, an artist held in similar regard by many. Their last release, A Day Without Rain, spent two years on the Billboard charts and as such a new collection of songs was awaited with baited breath. Finally the day has come and the five years without rain has come to an end.

As the first track "Less Than A Pearl" opens, you are grabbed by the voice, or should I say voices as multi-tracked banks of vocal feature highly in this work. Its hard not to use the word ethereal in conjunction with what you are hearing, part ecclesiastical, part otherworldly and not a million miles away from the New World Baroque combinations that Karl Jenkins has been dabbling with recently. The singer, Enya, has become synonymous with the band Enya and really what you hear is the woman herself, but it mustn't be forgotten that there is a backroom team of producer and lyricist that help create this magical sound. What you also realise is that the words themselves are not important her. I am a big fan of the voice being used to deliver a feeling, as an instrument would be used, words are not its main building blocks, emotions and feelings are.

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