Shepherd Moons

• 1. The Weight Of A Dream

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  Enya sat in a studio on the 4th of November 1991, holding an album that would soon sell millions. The date marked the release of Shepherd Moons, her third studio record following the massive success of Watermark. That previous album had become an unexpected global hit with its international top-ten single Orinoco Flow. Enya spent much of the year after 1988 traveling to promote it through interviews and performances. She felt the priority was to return to the studio rather than plan another concert tour. Recreating her studio sound live proved difficult for her team. The success of Watermark complicated the writing process at first. Enya recalled putting a lot of pressure on herself during those early days. When composing new melodies she kept asking if they were as good as what came before. Eventually she had to forget about charts and how much she sold. It felt like Watermark was a dream that had not really happened.

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• 2. Layers Of Sound And Silence

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  Aigle Studio stood in Artane, a northern suburb of Dublin, where much of the recording took place. Nicky Ryan and his wife Roma Ryan managed this facility from their home. The equipment there lacked the correct tools to complete final mixing and mastering. Production teams relocated to SARM West Studios in London to finish the work. Gregg Jackman handled additional engineering and mixing for tracks like How Can I Keep from Singing? and Book of Days. Andy Duncan played percussion on Book of Days while Roy Jewitt added clarinet parts to Angeles. Liam O'Flionn contributed uilleann pipes to Smaointe... Steve Sidwell performed cornet on Evacuee. Nicky himself played percussion on Ebudae. Enya recorded 500 layered voices without using sampling or replication techniques. She noticed her attitude changed when it came to recording Shepherd Moons because she mellowed out. This shift allowed greater time away from the studio during difficult moments. Several months after recording finished Enya had not yet listened to the album. She found any excuse not to hear it because finishing made her feel miserable with fear.

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• 3. Diaries And Ancient Songs

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  Enya drew inspiration for Book of Days from her own personal diary entries. Roma Ryan suggested writing lyrics based on themes from a film called Far and Away. The song features Irish lyrics describing excitement about writing in the morning. Another track named Evacuee emerged after seeing a BBC documentary about a child evacuated from London during World War II. A girl crying while recounting separation from home moved them greatly. They imagined the scenario of the girl saying goodbye at a train station waiting until everything was over. Caribbean Blue depicts a journey through a fantasy world named by Roma Ryan. Her melody reminded her of the Caribbean region so they chose that title. Marble Halls is an aria from the 1843 opera The Bohemian Girl by Michael William Balfe. Enya felt challenged recording it since it had only been sung in an opera setting before. Smaointe... refers to a story about a tsunami destroying a church at Magheragallon Beach where her grandparents are buried. The theme of loss stemmed from leaving home at age eleven to attend boarding school she described as devastating.

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• 4. Charts That Moved Mountains

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  Shepherd Moons reached number one on the UK Albums Chart for one week ending on the 16th of November 1991. It spent a total of 110 weeks on that chart listing. In the United States it entered the Billboard 200 at number forty-seven the week of the 7th of December 1991. The album rose to peak seventeen on the week ending the 28th of March 1992. It stayed present on the chart for 238 weeks total. On the Billboard New Age Albums chart it held number one for twenty-nine weeks during its 266-week run. By July 1994 seven million copies had sold worldwide across all formats. It sold close to one million copies in the United States each year from 1992 through 1996. In March 1996 the Recording Industry Association of America certified it quintuple platinum for five million shipments. January 1997 saw certification quadruple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for 1.2 million copies shipped. By 1994 the album spent 52 weeks on Spanish charts selling nearly 400,000 copies there. An estimated 13 million copies have sold globally since release.

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• 5. Awards And Critical Voices

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  Mike Joyce reviewed Shepherd Moons for The Washington Post calling Enya's vocals impressive and crystalline. He noted unmistakable poignancy brought to much of the album but criticized piano-focused tracks like No Holly for Miss Quinn. Barbara Jaeger gave a positive review for The Record praising rich sonic tapestries that envelop listeners. She picked Angeles and Caribbean Blue as highlight tracks along with singing in Irish. Ned Raggett wrote a retrospective review for AllMusic acknowledging similarities to Watermark while noting polished refinement. In 1993 Enya won a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for this record. That victory marked her first of four career wins in that category. She also received an IFPI Platinum European Award plus a Billboard Music Award. A National Association of Recording Merchandisers Award recognized Best Selling Album status. Saxophonist Colin Stetson credited Shepherd Moons as influence on his own album All This I Do for Glory released in 2017. He said the Enya album made him think about how air is manipulated in his music.

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