Enigma "Sadeness Part 1"... the song that will never fucking die...

*doot DOOT DAAAADUUUUUUUU*

My brother would play this a lot when he was 14 and say to me "you know, you just don't have any music that you can really RELAX to".

B-b-b-but Frankie Goes to Hollywood!

*doot DOOT DAAAADUUUUUUUU*

You clearly don't own the album. Unlike ME.

Haha, for once me and Dan Perry find a common ground. I used to be the proud owner of all three Enigma LPs, but unfortunately I've lost them somewhere.

With or without anal violation?

(xpost: I STILL HAVE ALL THREE OF THEM! Only I haven't listened to them in a dog's age. That may change tonight.)

AAAWWW-AAAYYAAHH-AWWW-AAAAYAAH!

*doot DOOT DAAAADUUUUUUUU*

"iiiiii-eeeeee-iiiiiiiiiii-iiiiii---iiiiiiiiiii" -- pygmies

enigma = the WORST

OMG "Sadeness" vs. "Work It" MASH-UP!

Sade, dit moi (Hosanna)
It's your fremme neppa venette

(Is this the point where I admit that I like that Deep Forest pygmy single, too?)

No.

Baaaad idea jeans.

In summation, FIE ON YOU, DONUT-E POOPYHEAD.

We were students.

In the song credits, instead of an official song credit, they say "that one famous Enigma song"

The whole point of Enigma for Cretu was keeping the performers and producers behind it obscured, enigmatic if you will. But Cornelius is one of the few participants he's admitted to, and his name is all over their publishing. Also Cornelius' wealth since the 90s far exceeds what German-language pop stars generally have.

I always find it amazing, like the ways in which Euro pop and UK pop intersect, and don't?

Like, I also hang out on a messageboard for a German-language band where at least half the users are German, Austrian, etc. and many, many times, they'll mention someone who is massive, huge, like Cliff Richard-level, even their grandparents know who they are, well-known in German-language markets, but I either think of them as an obscure one-hit-wonder, or I've literally never heard of them.

I'm used to the way that US / UK ideas of who/what was "massive" does not always translate. But it is genuinely eye-opening, discovering how little exposure we get to continental pop, beyond the occasional "summer holiday jam" that somehow makes it across.

Is Peter Schilling a big deal in the German-language market? "Major Tom (Coming Home)" is so cool, I've always wondered why he never made the international charts again.

a Dutch TV programme did an interview with Schilling recently on his big hit and how it impacted his life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoJZvD39M_A

His German page on Wikipedia suggests he has about a dozen more albums and multiple other singles (and says that he suffered "burnout" after his international success) so it would seem that he was far more well-known at home.

(I always love when I go to Wiki and the English page is like 3 sentences and the German page has like 20 subsections of information.)

x-post

some of the above is addressed in the interview I linked

Out of curiosity, was there ever a "Sadness Part 2"?

― I Named Veal (nordicskilla), Friday, July 8, 2005 9:36 PM (fifteen years ago)

Question got answered in 2016:

https://youtu.be/HHdylh210Ho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHdylh210Ho

I was listening to an apple radio "lisa gerrard & similar artists" station and the intro to the album was one of the tracks, which kinda highlights how auto-generated "stations" are inevitably gonna fuck up (the first track on MCMXD being a spoken "relax and listen to this album" thing, very of its day)

the specific nostalgia of the techno-dance-electronic music of this era is incredibly rich and also beyond that the record was always a very cool pop record

now playing: the rest of MCMXC in a dark hotel where I've been living for a week

I recently became aware of the Sarah MacLachlan collected dance remixes album, which is not quite that specific nostalgia (in either time or affect), but also not a million miles away. Someone more knowledgeable than me could probably trace some throughlines.

The Sarah McLachlan/Delirium track is the exact vibe of the first Enigma album imo, if many years later

Oh wow you're so right! I think I had only ever heard the epic trance remix of that one, but the original hits

now playing: the rest of MCMXC in a dark hotel where I've been living for a week

A fine approach. And it is a good album. I stand by my old AMG review from the late 90s. (I think that and the Enya reviews I did flummoxed a few folks back then but time has further justified my thoughts.)

Joan Crawford Loves Chachi, dancing nude like Silence of the Lambs' Buffalo Bill.

One of my favorite memories is closing all the shades and playing this album in the dark while my friends and I laid on the carpet of my parents’ family room. No drugs were involved.

Right before Delerium went the full McLachlan there was a song on Semantic Spaces, "Flatlands," that was uhhh a bit more than just "inspired by" that Sadeness sound. Love it, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PABYxXkCJUg

Probably the origin of my love of pan flute/pan pipes in techno