What are you listening to? DN edition

by chuckofish

“Huh. This sounds a little like Enya.”

It’s a remark that I get occasionally from my mother when I’ve co-opted the stereo. And it’s true; some so-called “chillwave” music (b. 2008, d. 2013) can skew pretty Enya-y. Given Enya’s reputation as a middlebrow or even kitschy artist, many would take this comment as a crack. “Enya” is less than positive. In fact, however, I take this as something of a compliment. This is not because I particularly enjoy Enya’s music but, rather, because I think “Enya” also means something other than Enya herself. Enya is also a description of listening context.

Close your eyes. Please, close them. Now inhale deeply, filling your lungs with the air that surrounds you always. Now push that breath out. Picturing Enya, tell me what you see. Let the flowing things exhale through you. A waterfall of vowels. Orinoco. A figure wreathed in billowing folds. Diaphony.

This sort of new age-y nonsense is the Enya stereotype. As the description in this YouTube video (“The Very Best of Enya”—nearly 18M views!) encourages us, “sit back and relax as you listen to two of Enya’s most beautiful songs accompanied by some of nature’s finest pictures.” Sit back, pretty pictures. But really, who wouldn’t want that? If it actually worked, I mean.

What “sounds like Enya” means isn’t only “sounds like Enya.” Theoretically, Enya brings ease, but what “sounds like Enya” can mean is also something closer to “I’m listening in the context of having already eased.” Which is exactly what I want! I try not to co-opt the stereo too often. The moment has to be right. It shouldn’t be a moment when one might pay too much attention. Attention is critical. So, never dinner. Dish-washing is ideal. Washing dishes, a song sneaks by you. Something nice, just on in the background. Not too far in the background—you should give the occasional “Huh.” But you shouldn’t be snapped to attention. Ideally, by the time you listen to a song, you have already heard it.

And now, a few (breathy) songs I’ve been loving recently.