Dark Sky Island is the eighth studio album by Irish singer, songwriter and musician Enya, released on November 20, 2015 by Warner Bros. Records. After the release of her previous holiday album, And Winter Came... (2008), Enya was unsure of her next career move so she decided to take a break from music, which lasted three years. In the spring of 2012 she started to write and record new material for a new album with her longtime collaborators, producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan. Enya gained inspiration for the title track and the album from the 2011 designation of Sark in the Channel Islands as a dark-sky preserve and a collection of Roma Ryan's poems on islands.
Dark Sky Island received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success upon release. It peaked at No. 4 in the UK Albums Chart, Enya's highest position on the chart since Paint The Sky With Stars (1997), and No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. Elsewhere, it reached the top five in nine countries. A deluxe edition features three additional tracks. Enya promoted the album with a worldwide media tour that included performances of some songs from the album. Dark Sky Island was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.[1]
Track Listing[]
All music by Enya, lyrics by Roma Ryan, all songs produced by Nicky Ryan.
| Standard edition | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "The Humming..." | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:45 |
| 2. | "So I Could Find My Way" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 4:26 |
| 3. | "Even In The Shadows" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 4:14 |
| 4. | "The Forge Of The Angels" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 5:14 |
| 5. | "Echoes In Rain" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:35 |
| 6. | "I Could Never Say Goodbye" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:29 |
| 7. | "Dark Sky Island" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 4:57 |
| 8. | "Sancta Maria" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:51 |
| 9. | "Astra Et Luna" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:21 |
| 10. | "The Loxian Gates" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:34 |
| 11. | "Diamonds On The Water" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:35 |
| Total length: | 44:01 | |||
| Deluxe edition | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
| 12. | "Solace" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:58 |
| 13. | "Pale Grass Blue" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 3:34 |
| 14. | "Remember Your Smile" | Enya, Roma Ryan | Nicky Ryan | 2:57 |
| Total length: | 54:30 | |||
Photoshoot[]
Introductions[]
Songs[]
The title track "Dark Sky Island" was inspired by Sark island and it's the first to be written. It is a gentle, story-like song, which also mentions various constellation names. Another notable song is "The Humming...", which is a song "that muses on the cycle of the universe and how change affects everything". While Enya was working on the music, there was a part that she started to hum to and decided to keep the section as the humming part. She had read a story that Roma had given her about the earliest sound in the universe was a humming sound, which Nicky said was around forty-seven octaves below the lowest piano key". The sound was inaudible to humans until scientists took the information picked up by the Planck space telescope and reproduced it through audio compression and pitch alteration, which created a humming sound and gave the track a fitting title.
"So I Could Find My Way" is set in waltz time and composed in the key of D major. Enya described the melody as "very emotional". The song is dedicated to Nicky Ryan's deceased mother Mona. Enya describes its subject of "a mother moving on" as "something quite universal ... You think about what she left behind in your life. That's what you'll always remember. What her stories were, what she was hoping for you; hoping you'd find your way".
"Even In The Shadows" features a double bass played by Irish rock and jazz musician Eddie Lee. Lee was a member of Those Nervous Animals from Sligo, Ireland. The band were label mates with the Brennan family band Clannad under the Tara Music label in the 1980s; Enya was a temporary member of Clannad from 1980 until 1982.
There are two songs on the album that feature lyrics in Loxian, a language created by Roma Ryan, for the first time since Amarantine (2005). These songs in particular focus on the "intergalactic theme" and otherworldly and futuristic tales Roma Ryan uses Loxian for, along with the non-Loxian "Astra Et Luna".
"Echoes In Rain" is in a minor scale, specifically F-sharp minor (the parallel minor to A major) and has a sort of "marching rhythm celebrating a journey's end". The song includes a complex piano-based bridge similar to Enya's solo piano tracks on her earlier albums. Enya's vocals span two octaves from B2 to E5. The lyrics describe the subtle thrill of journeying home after a long time away, travelling through night into the next day. The verses detail how the changes of the natural surroundings and the elated feeling throughout the journey home. It was the final song written for the album.
"I Could Never Say Goodbye" is an Irish lament with "a sparse, hymnal arrangement".
"Sancta Maria" blends synthesizers and classical instrumentation.
Promotion[]
The album was announced by Enya on her website in September 2015. The title, first single and track listing were announced on 7 October 2015. Along with standard and deluxe editions on digital formats, a vinyl edition was made available, making Dark Sky Island Enya's first vinyl release since her self-titled album's re-release in 1992.
In the weeks preceding Dark Sky Island's release, Enya's various official social media accounts posted interviews with Enya and her lyricist Roma Ryan, previews for the album, exclusive photos and 'behind the scenes' moments, lyric and regular music videos, and information on iTunes' exclusive early releases of the album's songs. This is the first use of social media to promote Enya's music as well as using it for giving fans exclusive, official information and content. Embarking upon the promotional trip for Dark Sky Island, Enya herself initially promoted the album in Britain and Ireland, being interviewed for The Irish Times, before guesting on Lorraine and on BBC Radio 4's BBC Front Row on 19 November 2015, and on other major radio shows like The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 and Gerry Kelly's show on BBC Radio Ulster upon the album's release day. She then promoted the album worldwide with interviews in Japan and the US on news and morning television. On 13 December 2015, Enya gave a surprise performance at the Universal Studios Japan Christmas Show in Osaka, Japan, of two songs—"Orinoco Flow" and "Echoes in Rain". She called it a "surprise gift" to the Japanese fans, and complimented the "spectacular" celebrations of that day. On 18 January 2016, Enya was interviewed by Russell Davies on BBC Radio 2's The Art of Artists. On 2 March 2016, Enya was interviewed by Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 2's Simon Mayo Drivetime after guesting on This Morning. To promote the album in the United States, Enya performed "Echoes In Rain" on Live! with Kelly and Michael, "Even In The Shadows" on Good Day New York and was interviewed on HuffPost Live. On 7 April 2016, Enya performed "Echoes in Rain" at the 2016 ECHO Awards.
Release[]
Dark Sky Island was released on CD and as a digital download on 20 November 2015. It was released on LP on 18 December 2015.
Two promotional singles from the album were released. "So I Could Find My Way" was released digitally on 30 October 2015. Its music video, released on 6 November, features Enya performing in the Chapel Royal Church in Dublin with a female string ensemble and choir. "The Humming..." was released digitally on 13 November with an accompanying lyric video released the same day.
Dark Sky Island entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 4, Enya's highest-charting album there since Paint The Sky With Stars (1997). In the United States, Dark Sky Island debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200, with 48,000 equivalent album units; it sold 46,000 copies in its first week of release.
Dark Sky Island ended 2015 as the 40th best selling album of the year with sales of 900,000 copies worldwide.
Reception[]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 6.7/10 |
| Metacritic | 78/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Evening Standard | |
| Fort Worth Star-Telegram | |
| The Guardian | |
| The Irish Times | |
| Música Nueva |  |
| Newsday | B+ |
| Pitchfork | 7.1/10 |
Dark Sky Island received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 8 reviews. In his review for AllMusic, Timothy Monger rated the album four stars out of five. He wrote the album "has all the thematic and sonic hallmarks typical of an Enya release but with significantly more highlights than on her two prior works" and highlights "The Humming" as "one of the strongest tracks she's produced in decades and resembles a dark cousin to 1991's masterwork 'Caribbean Blue'". He summarised the album "does manage to harness some of the power and creativity of Enya's early days and pairs it with both the confidence and shadows of age". In the Evening Standard, John Aizlewood gave the album the same rating, calling it "magnificent in every sense" with "songs built up with layer upon layer of vocals ... layer upon layer of instrumentation and layer upon layer of luxurious, uplifting, undeniably spiritual warmth".
Siobhan Kane of The Irish Times rated the album four stars out of five, praising Enya's vocal power "that manages to be both frail and strong" on "So I Could Find My Way", and summarised the album as "nourishing and immersive". Brad Nelson in his review for Pitchfork, likened the album to "being embraced by air" and said with "some confidence" that Dark Sky Island was Enya's best album since The Memory Of Trees (1995), released almost twenty years prior; he gave a positive review and score of 7.1 out of 10. He praised Enya for "drifting somewhat from her aesthetic" and highlighted "Even In The Shadows" as a prime example and consequently called it "one of the best [songs] on the album".
Personnel[]
Credits are adapted from the album's 2015 liner notes.
Musicians[]
- Enya – vocals, instrumentation, mixer
- Eddie Lee – double bass on "Even in the Shadows"
Production[]
- Roma Ryan – lyrics, Loxian language, font
- Nicky Ryan – arrangement, engineer, mixer, album sleeve conception
- Dick Beetham – mastering at 360 Mastering in Hastings
- Daniel Polley – digital advisor, technician
- Simon Fowler – album sleeve conception, photography
- Richard Welland – booklet layout
- Michael Whitham – commissioner
Charts[]
Weekly Charts[]
| Chart (2015–16) | Peak
position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 8 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 6 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 3 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 3 |
| Canadian Albums (Billboard) | 6 |
| Croatian Albums (Toplista) | 16 |
| Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI) | 6 |
| Danish Albums (Hitlisten) | 21 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 5 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) | 23 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 31 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 3 |
| Greek Albums (IFPI Greece) | 66 |
| Hungarian Albums (Mahasz) | 4 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA) | 7 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) | 8 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon) | 17 |
| Mexican Albums (AMPROFON) | 55 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 8 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) | 13 |
| Polish Albums (ZPAV) | 14 |
| Portuguese Albums (AFP) | 13 |
| Russian Albums (2M) | 5 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) | 7 |
| South African Albums (RISA) | 20 |
| South Korean Albums (Gaon) | 23 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) | 12 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 22 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 2 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 4 |
| US Billboard 200 | 8 |
- The album also peaked at number one on the Billboard Top New Age Albums chart for ten consecutive weeks after its release.
Year-end Charts[]
| Chart (2015) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 50 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 48 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 59 |
| Dutch Albums (MegaCharts) | 20 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 160 |
| German Albums (Official Top 100) | 36 |
| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ) | 15 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) | 99 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 30 |
| Spanish Albums (Promusicae) | 89 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 63 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 29 |
| Chart (2016) | Position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 39 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 40 |
| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ) | 32 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 41 |
| US New Age Albums (Billboard) | 1 |
| US Billboard 200 | 191 |
Certifications And Sales[]
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA) | Gold | 35,000^ |
| Belgium (BEA) | Gold | 15,000* |
| Canada (Music Canada) | Gold | 40,000^ |
| Germany (BVMI) | Gold | 100,000‡ |
| Hungary (Mahasz) | Platinum | 2,000^ |
| Japan | — | 50,000 |
| New Zealand (RIANZ) | Gold | 7,500^ |
| Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) | Gold | 10,000^ |
| South Korea | — | 925 |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Gold | 100,000* |
| Summaries | ||
| Worldwide | — | 900,000 |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
Release History[]
| Region | Date | Edition(s) | Format(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | November 20, 2015 | Standard Deluxe |
CD Digital Download |
Warner Bros. |
| December 18, 2015 | Standard | LP |