Customer Reviews

String Quartet Tribute to Enya

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I had high hopes when I received The String Quartet Tribute to Enya: Dreams. I enjoy practically everything Enya's ever done; I enjoy string quartets, depending on what they play and how well they play it; Enya uses synthetic and occasionally real stringed instruments on her albums; and a "tribute" album by a real string quartet ought to be respectful of Enya's music. How could I lose?

Well, my deductive logic overlooked one fact: not everyone takes the concept of "tribute" in the same way. Some take considerable license with the original artist's work. This album does that more than many. If the problem had stopped there, this could have been a good album anyway. Not so.

First, the musicians are very good ones, but the arrangements (even when respectful) are mediocre at best. (I kept thinking, "Hey, I could do better than that with my own MIDI arrangements. In fact, I have done better than that!" And if I can say that as a amateur songwriter, hopefully accurately, then there's something seriously wrong with the "pros".) Second, with some tracks (above all the cover of "A Day Without Rain"), the spirit and sometimes the form of the original song is distorted almost or even entirely beyond recognition.

In short, Enya fans should avoid this album like the plague. The producers are to be commended for not simply making a pastiche of Enya's music, but the Taliesin Orchetra did a much better (if still not perfect) effort in that direction. I'd like to be merciful and give this album a 3, but I can't; what it does to "A Day Without Rain" alone is simply inexcusible.