Ena Vie - From Within
Ena Vie’s debut album ‘From Within’ is a singer-songwriter affair, predominantly acoustic based. The record begins with the fairly straight forward ‘Big Enough’, driven by an acoustic guitar. With dubious lyrics that threaten to derail the whole song at every turn, Ena Vie showcases an A to B style of songwriting with the odd false start. ‘From Within’ is apparently a record for “fans of classic Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette.” Indeed, the Alanis Morissette likening is fair, but the Tori Amos comparison stretches the concept of artistic licence to its limits.
It is clear that Ena Vie can write songs, but the quality of these songs does tend to dip and dive. Despite there not being anything inherently wrong with the songs on ‘From Within’, save the mostly appalling lyrics, there isn’t anything particularly brilliant about them either. The saving grace is Ena Vie’s voice. Similar in style and containing nuances akin to Alanis Morissette, there’s plenty of scope and power contained within. Unfortunately, it’s wasted on this set of songs. ‘Kissed’ comes across rather regrettably and oddly as a Jamiroquai song, making for an embarrassing section of the record.
The songs are predictable, generic with little to no spark. It’s difficult to find merit in each song when they all sound like the song you’ve just listened to. However, when Ena Vie ditches the classic singer-songwriter set up of acoustic guitar and the condiments for just a piano and her vocals on ‘Channels of Creation’, it works, well, until pan pipes get thrown into the mix.
Listening to ‘From Within’ is a disappointing task, when one embarrassing aspect of the record is removed it’s simply replaced by another. However, all is not lost. ‘Saturn Man’ is a well produced and undoubted highlight of the album. The downside is that it’s the best of a bad bunch. Ena Vie’s voice is earnest and it’s clear that the songs mean a lot to her. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm seems produced. The songs appear to have been so rehearsed that they’re perfect, and while this may not sound like a bad thing, in this case it is. The essence of Ena Vie, whoever that may be, seems to have been lost completely.
At times it’s hard to believe that this record wasn’t released in the 90s. It’s haunted by early 90s singer-songwriters, whether that is the fault of the production is difficult to tell but one thing is certain - Ena Vie has missed the mark by quite a way.