21 for 21: #12—Enya, "Watermark"

If I were counting down my most frequently played CDs, this would easily be at number one. As it is, it charts at #12 on my top 21 favorite CDs in my collection. It's the Irish new-age artist Enya with her 1988 classic "Watermark." Even if you think you've never heard of Enya, chances are you've heard her music in a movie, on a commercial, or in an office or elevator.

I first discovered Enya (real name: Eithne Ní Bhraonáin; yeah, let's go with "Enya") as I did much of the music on this list...on MTV with her biggest single, "Orinoco Flow." It was unusual because 1988 was the age of Madonna and Van Halen; what was this strange Irish lady with this weird song doing on MTV? As it turns out, her album made it as high as #25 on the Billboard Hot 200.

I think it was college roommate Mark Grossman who first bought a copy of the CD, and it became regular background music for marathon study sessions as well as study break games of Pente. I don't know when I bought my own copy, but I've had it forever and have played it maybe more than a thousand times.

The music is just wonderful. Most of the songs are quiet and low-key; even the more upbeat songs won't really raise your pulse rate much. She uses mainly keyboards with some backing percussion and the occasional Irish pipes. Her voice is ethereal and beautiful, like a faerie from the mists of Irish legends. Some of the songs are sung in her native Irish, and this only intensifies the other-worldliness of the music. Other songs are in English, some are instrumental, and one is in Latin. Not exactly your mainstream pop album.

I love this album and listen to it constantly for one primary reason: it's my background music for when I write my Llanfyllin novels. Both books, Dylan's Treasure (finished in 2005) and The Springs of Llanfyllin (currently under construction) are set in my imaginary medieval version of Wales, and the female protagonist of the books is Irish. Enya's album is the perfect soundtrack for these stories, and when I'm writing, chances are this is playing on the stereo.

Here's the song that started it all, but you really should listen to the whole album; it's an amazing experience that has never stopped for me for more than 25 years.