Shocking Omissions: Enya, 'Watermark'
This essay is one in a series celebrating deserving artists or albums not included on NPR Music's list of 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women.
Enya prefers to spend her days far from the limelight, creating her soft spun compositions secluded from the world in a private studio in a quiet Irish town. She doesn't tour, doesn't show up on red carpets and seems to enjoy being in public only slightly more than someone in the Witness Protection Program.
Despite her lack of interest in the trappings of fame (save for the castle she bought herself), Enya truly is famous. Her fans kept her 1991 album on the 200 chart for 238 weeks. And in, was critically panned. When was released in 1988, rock critic Robert Christgau gave the album a D+, that the album "makes hay of pop's old reliable women-are-angels scam." It's a fair assessment, but he says that like it's a bad thing — when in fact, it's why the album should be included in a canon of the greatest albums made by women.
