Okay, the Acadamy Award & Golden Globe Award voters didn't agree with me, but who are you going to believe: those guys, or me? LOL

Yes, I do believe that "May It Be" will be listened to long after the other nominees are forgotten, but do bear in mind that I am highly biased for all of Enya's work. For many, it may take several listens to completely appreciate. It has a certain mysticism to it, much as you would expect from a song composed for the LORD OF THE RINGS film.

However, I don't think "May It Be", brilliant as it is, matches "Isobella" in beauty, healing quality, and enchantment. Both "Isobella" and "The First of Autumn" have been unavailable in the U.S. although both were on the Japanese pressing of "A Day Without Rain".

"The First of Autumn" is the most energetic song of the three, and close to equalling the first two. While I do appreciate the thoughts of another reviewer who felt quite swept up in the sequence of the three, I personally feel the disc would've been better balanced with "The First of Autumn" between the more mystical and reflective songs, but that is hardly a criticism.

This is definitely a must have disc for all who love Enya's music. It's Enya at her very best.

While looking at all the extras on my 2-disc version of "Fellowship Of The Ring" I came across the video of Enya singing "May It Be". I was hooked by about the ten-second mark. The song instantly became a favorite of mine and I began looking for it on cd. I finally found the movie soundtrack and had the song in a format I could play in my truck. If you haven't yet seen it, the video is nothing short of fantastic! I would place this song alongside of other great movie music such as: "Moon River" and "My Heart Will Go On".

Be advised: you only get 15 minutes of music. But you pay nearly full price for a full-size CD.

As always, Enya's music is most excellent. But somebody didn't do the math to determine that customers will be dissatisfied to discover that they get only three songs on this CD. It's hardly worth loading the CD into your player. You'll be swapping disks just after you sit down to enjoy it.

Nice music, but $12.99 is a little steep for 11:05 of content.

May It Be is a marvellous track crafted with emotion and ingenuity. It combines English and one of J.R.R's fictional languages - Quenya. It gives us the feeling of loneliness and sadness that one would experience when he is far away from home. My mother, who doesn't know about the lyrics of this song, was also able to derive the same emotions as the ones the song conveys.

However, the chorus comes in soon enough to bring us hope that we would eventually find our way. The fear of being lost dissipates with the soothing vocals of Enya.

Isobella is one of Enya's musical gems. It starts off with the same tone as May It Be but soon manifests its own individual unique personality. The melody of the sound is woven over aural landscapes where highs and lows stand out without overshadowing one another - a smooth flow of contours. The translation (not included) tells us of the female lead - Isobella, who has experienced healing nature of love during her lifetime. Although the song does not express its meaning directly, a few listens should bring us to the past of Isobella.

The First Of Autumn, with its strings arrangement, is evidence of Enya's new focus on orchestration of her music. Not really a classical fan, I appreciate strings in manners like that in The First Of Autumn, which includes vocals. This is a wonderful experience as I enjoy the sound of Enya together with richness of the strings (especially the celloes). The song gives the feeling of red maple leaves falling down rapidly in a "whirlwind" ( a light twirl ) around Enya as if they were in a rush to herald the coming of the fall. A fast-paced song that would leave you breathless at the end of it all as a crescendo builds up with the celloes ending it all.

As one can see, a peson is first led on a mysterious journey by May It Be with first,uncertainty, later hope, followed by a quiet period of self-reflection and rememberance by Isobella before being abruptly awakened by hopeful The First Of Autumn to know that one should not dwell too much on the past and face the future - a bright red of Autumn.

Pardon me for any grammatical and spelling errors I have made.