Macalla

Clannad

album cover

Not Your Typical Jigs and Reels

In the '80s, the Brennan family of Gweedore, County Donegal, was responsible for two of the most successful Celtic music acts ever—the pop-leaning band Clannad (Gaelic for "family") and the solo career of Clannad keyboardist Enya, who transformed the vapors of the Irish bogs into keening New Age gold.

Clannad, formed in the pub where Papa Brennan was the proprietor, was just beginning to break out of the traditional Celtic mold when Enya left her three siblings in 1982 to pursue a solo career. By this 1985 album, Clannad had developed a sound that linked the earthy mysticism of traditional Irish music to the airbrushed guitar pop and soothing harmonies of Fleetwood Mac. Macalla shows how rich this territory is: The album's rapt ballads and stately medium-tempo anthems are among the most inventive contemporary music to come from Ireland.

Clannad recorded the rhythm parts for Macalla in England, and then moved to Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios to do the vocals. After struggling with the melody to one song written by Ciaran Brennan, the band sought refuge at the local pub. There they encountered members of U2. In storybook fashion, days later Bono was in the studio, singing on and helping to develop what became the Top 20 1986 hit "In a Lifetime."

The song, which intertwines Bono's brawny voice with Moya Brennan's more fragile, rib-bonlike instrument, is not the only highlight. Macalla means "echo" in Gaelic, and that's one unifying idea: Each little bubble of melody arrives with lots of space around it. Even when there's a backbeat, Clannad makes room for faintly reverberating waves of sound that eventually circle back around. Out of those delicate mists comes a deep sense of Celtic tradition, a music of great fervor that floats with feathery grace.

Genre: World, Celtic
Released: 1985, RCA
Key Tracks: "In a Lifetime," "Caislean Oir," "Closer to Your Heart," "Blackstairs."
Catalog Choice: Clannad 2
Next Stop: Enya: Watermark
After That: Loreena McKennitt: The Visit
Book Pages: 170–171

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About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces.

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