When Eithne Ni Bhraonain released her breakthrough album Watermark in 1988 she was hailed as a kind of musical visionary, the ultimate mystical songstress for the New Age market. Twelve years on she's just as good (or as bad) as she ever was; the trouble is she's been happy to re-make the same record over and over again. Recorded with the usual team of producer Nicky Ryan and his lyricist wife Roma, A Day Without Rain is entirely without surprises: rolling piano and sweeping string arrangements backed up by Enya's soft Celtic crooning, all performed at the gentlest of paces to soothe the troubled mind. It's undeniably enchanting in places, but long before the end the songs begin to merge into each other and the old objection remains: if you already own an Enya album why would you need another?
