One might assume that, with those two songs at the helm, the rest of Pure Moods would be in the same vein of mystically orchestral and reverb-drenched females chanting nonwords. Enya Brennan is the well-known Irish singer and songwriter behind zillions of mystical, folk-inspired ballads that have appeared chiefly in movies whose middle words are “ of the.” Adiemus (the band) is a conglomeration of musicians led by composer Karl Jenkins that produced multiple “vocalise-style albums” that mash together classical, gospel, African, and “world” music traditions to produce tracks that you recognize either from Delta Airlines commercials or from, well, Pure Moods. The anchors of the of the whole collection are two of the most recognizable songs in the popular-New-Age canon: “Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” by Enya, whose video the Pure Moods people seemed to have ripped off entirely for their album art, and the single “Adiemus” by the eponymous … Adiemus. But it’s the original, the purest of Pure Moods that many of us remember from seeing this ad as children during the Nickelodeon afternoon programming block (?) and can now sing all the snippets of the songs in order, even the ones that don’t have actual lyrics. The Pure Moods brand, according to Wikipedia, spans over 10 total CD compilations, including Celtic Moods, Christmas Moods, and the vaguely Paganistic Pure Moods: Celestial Celebration. Pure Moods seems to have been an attempt to corner a lucrative “new age” market, targeting the kind of people who do dream of a world where unicorns prance, ‘80s-style headdresses are all the rage at weddings, and will believe “direct from Europe” and “multi-platinum” constitute a legitimate musical pedigree. So called “direct response television commercials” for CD collections like this were a staple of cable advertising for the last 20 years: sold more on overall aesthetic than on specific songs, they were usually the first step in a mail-order (remember 800-numbers?!) and had price points that invariably ended in 99 cents (except for the obviously inferior 98, or, heaven forbid, 97 cent offerings). “Imagine a world where time drifts slowly, a world where music carries you away…”
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