It’s Time to Take Enya Seriously

The Pitchfork Review

Pitchfork

Music, Music Commentary, Music Interviews, Music History

3.3 • 844 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For years, Enya’s music was treated as a cultural punchline, the eerily soothing soundtrack to countless crystal shops and Pure Moods commercials. But lately, a new generation of artists—from Weyes Blood to Nicki Minaj—is proudly claiming the misunderstood Irish auteur as an influence. On this episode, Pitchfork Editor Puja Patel is joined by Contributing Editor Jenn Pelly, a recently converted Enya fanatic, for a discussion about the depth and complexity of Enya’s artistry and the ways she maintained creative control of her music and image in a male-dominated industry. Next week, Pitchfork will publish Pelly’s longform written feature on Enya's blooming influence in 2020, featuring interviews with many of the artists who look to her as a guiding light.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Pitchfork Review. I'm Fugia Patel, the editor of Pitchfork, and I'm here with our contributing editor, Jen Pelly.
0:09.0	Thanks for having me. I just watched Jen light incense as we were setting up for this call, Jen. How did you set up for our conversation today?
0:19.3	Yes, I've got my frankincense.
0:21.6	I have a couple of candles lit.
0:23.6	I just wanted to set the right tone for this conversation.
0:27.6	I feel like you have a proposition for the listeners of the pitchwork review today.
0:34.6	Yes.
0:35.6	A strong proposition, which is that we should consider Enya seriously.
0:40.1	So you might be a fan of Enya and just not know it yet because of the way her influence
0:47.4	is currently seeping out through independent music culture.
0:51.6	I feel like she's like a fairy tale creature.
0:54.9	I could see that for sure.
0:56.2	She's like a mythological being.
0:58.1	I understand why someone would see her as being this like mythological woman who lives
1:03.3	in a castle in Ireland.
1:04.4	And I also see why someone would be like she is a groundbreaking musician who
1:09.8	innovated all of these really cool production techniques in the 80s,
1:15.1	who has been an inspiration to several generations of artists, just like multifaceted.
1:21.5	I guess that's what I really am out to convince people of or to make people understand,
1:25.9	is that Anya is a multifaceted artist and there's probably
1:30.4	more to her than you think.
1:32.3	But yeah, to give context to all of this, basically we were in a features meeting a couple of
	...

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