Actual conversation between two Bullz-Eye staffers:
Writer #1: Isn’t Enya’s new album a holiday album?
Writer #2: Aren’t they all holiday albums?
It was only meant as a joke, of course, but there is a kernel of truth there as well. There is nothing on And Winter Came… that sounds any more or less Christmas-y than any of her other albums (save for the album’s closer, a version of “Silent Night” done in Irish), but Enya’s soundscapes do have a certain coldness to them that make them ideal wintertime listening. You’ve heard a few of these songs before in various incarnations – this album’s instrumental title track is a direct descendant to the instrumental title tracks on Watermark and Shepherd Moons – but a couple songs, namely “Trains and Winter Rains” and “My! My! Time Flies,” boast chord progressions and arrangements that suggest Enya’s a closet power pop fan, of all things. Heck, the latter song even has an honest to goodness guitar solo. It’s tempting to put Enya down for making the same album over and over, but it works, damn it. (Reprise)
