Watermark is formed of eleven tracks, eight of which Enya and Roma are listed on as co-writers. The remaining three are instrumentals solely composed by Enya.
Side one
Watermark opens with a same-titled track, a tradition that Enya would adopt on her next three albums. Its title derived from a poem Roma was writing at the time of recording, which inspired her to name the track accordingly. However, the track was kept as an instrumental and the poem was left unused. It was printed for the first time in the liner notes for Enya's 2002 box set, Only Time: The Collection. Enya and Nicky dedicated the track to Bones Howe, an American producer and a friend of Nicky's who was the inspiration behind the only word that Enya sings on the track: "Howe".
thumb|right|upright|"Cursum Perficio" was inspired by a documentary on [[Marilyn Monroe.]]
"Cursum Perficio" came about after Enya and the Ryans had seen a documentary on American actress and model Marilyn Monroe, who once wrote the phrase on the tiles on her front doorstep. It means "Your journey ends here" in Latin, and Roma completed a set of Latin lyrics based around the phrase.
"On Your Shore" refers to Magheragallon Beach at Enya's hometown of Gweedore, County Donegal that houses a cemetery where her grandparents are buried. Its emotional and personal connection to her childhood inspired her to write it. Two versions were recorded with Irish and English lyrics; Roma recalled the Irish version became the favourite to which Enya and Nicky also agreed, which led to its addition on the album.
"Miss Clare Remembers" is a reworked version of a same-titled piano instrumental that Enya originally recorded in 1983, her first project as a solo artist. It was released on Touch Travel (1984), an audio cassette of music from various artists. When the track was re-recorded for Watermark, Enya and Nicky toyed with adding vocals and other instruments, but agreed it sounded best as a piano piece. It originated from a riff she had developed after Nicky suggested playing a melody in five octaves; they left the arrangement as it was, until they realised the album needed one more track. The song developed around the initial riff, itself becoming part of the chorus hook. Dickins and Cullum are referenced in the lyrics in the lines: "We can steer, we can near with Rob Dickins at the wheel. We can sigh, say goodbye, Ross and his dependencies", the latter being a reference to the region of Antarctica known as Ross Dependency.
"Evening Falls..." is a track that Roma described as "a song of a spirit travelling". Watermark was released on 19 September 1988 in the United Kingdom; by Geffen Records the week of 4 February 1989. The album had a steady climb, and reached its peak at 25 on the week ending 22 April 1989. Elsewhere, the album went to number one in New Zealand Five years later, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipment of 1.2 million copies. In the United States, Watermark sold 500,000 copies in its first four months of release. After 7 years, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of four million copies. It sold one million copies in the country between March 1995 and March 1996. In November 2008, Billboard reported the album had sold 3,877,571 copies in the United States according to figures tracked by Nielsen SoundScan since 1991. By 1994, the album spent 165 weeks on Spanish charts and sold 300,000 copies in Spain. Worldwide, the album has sold an estimated 8 million copies.
Enya released four singles from Watermark between 1988 and 1991. "Orinoco Flow" was the lead single, released on 3 October 1988 and entered the United Kingdom singles chart at twenty-nine. It climbed to number five in its second week before it reached number one in its third, staying at the top for three consecutive weeks. Dickins observed that some of the public were confused on the song's title and were asking shop staff for "Sail Away", so he ordered to have the title changed on subsequent pressings to "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)". The single became a crossover hit in the United States after the single gained airplay on progressive rock, Top 40, and new age format radio stations. and peaked at number three in Ireland and number 20 in the United Kingdom. and reached number 12 in Ireland and 41 in the United Kingdom. A music video was produced for each single with Michael Geoghegan as director, and included on the video compilation Moonshadows, released on VHS and LaserDisc by Warner Music Vision and Warner Reprise Video in 1991.
Enya embarked on a worldwide media tour which lasted from September 1988 to May 1989 and included press, radio and television interviews and appearances, record signings, and lip-sync performances of songs from Watermark.
Critical reception
Watermark received generally positive reviews from music critics. In an April 1988 review, Hot Press reporter Liam Fay wrote the album is "A lifetime's worth of sights, sounds and experiences condescend into an orderly and lucid aural aquarium". He praised her orchestral-like vocals on "Cursum Perficio", the instrumentation on "Storms in Africa", "The Longships", and "Exile", and the "exquisite liqueous pop" of "Orinoco Flow" which, as he predicted, "should be a hit single". Fay was aware that lyrics in such types of music can be the weak point, but deemed Roma's lyrics are "integral and are ideally sculpted to allow Enya's voice to float between the gaps and pauses". Fay also felt "Na Laetha Geal M'óige", "On Your Shore", and "Evening Falls..." sound "too hymn-like for their own good", and pale in comparison to the rest of the album and Ryan's production "reveals a different hue" each time one listens to it.
A review by Bill Henderson was printed in the Orlando Sentinel, with Henderson giving the album four stars out of five and writing: "Delicate. That adjective describes the melodies of Enya" whose "art becomes the sum of its parts – as light as a whisper, yet as strong as a scream". He compared her methods to English singer Claire Hamill but "much better", and praised her personal songs like "On Your Shore" to invite the listener to recall homes of their past, "a bittersweet journey". While the instrumental tracks to him are "simple and pleasant musical ideas", they are overshadowed by her vocal tracks, as "Her singing is so strong that it is painfully obvious when she isn't". He deemed "Na Laetha Geal M'oige" "one of the most beautiful melodies recorded by anyone recently" that is sung with such conviction, the Irish lyrics do not affect the music. Jonathan Takiff, for the Philadelphia Daily News, started his review with: "When this old world starts getting you down, just lay on ... Watermark ... and drift away to a blissful state", of which Enya brings a "fusion of old sod balladry and modem technology to another plateau, with a magical, mysterious brew that could be dubbed "New Age Irish" or "Celtic Ambient"". Takiff picked "Orinoco Flow" as the stand out song, and called "River" a "blissful instrumental". He concluded with: "There's nothing uptempo to ever jar the hypnotic ebb and flow. Just lay back and let this music roll all over you."
Helena Mulkerns in Rolling Stone called the album "a rich mood piece of broad proportions" and "a glorious aural mosaic". The title track "sails the listener gently into an ebb-and-flow movement that permeates the album" that contains multi-vocals she described as "distinctive" and "striking". She thought Roma's lyrics were "unornamented but compelling", and that its multi-lingual touches "enrich" the listening experience without becoming too dominating.
Track listing
All music by Enya and arranged by Enya and Nicky Ryan; all lyrics by Roma Ryan.
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
|8
|-
!scope="row"|Austrian Albums Chart
|15
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)
|3
|-
!scope="row"|Dutch Album Top 100 Chart
|4
|-
!scope="row"|Finnish Albums Chart
|23
|-
!scope="row"|German Media Control Albums Chart
|6
|-
!scope="row" |Italian Albums Chart
|18
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Oricon Albums Chart
|7
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums Chart
|1
|-
!scope="row"|Norwegian Albums Chart
|5
|-
!scope="row"|Spanish Albums Chart
|5
|-
!scope="row"|Swedish Albums Chart
|5
|-
!scope="row"|Swiss Albums Chart
|1
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums Chart
|5
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard 200
|25
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1988 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1988)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|Dutch Albums Chart
|41
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums Chart
|43
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1989 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1989)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums Chart
|29
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Albums Chart
|16
|-
!scope="row"|Dutch Albums Chart
|52
|-
!scope="row"| German Albums Chart
|59
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Albums Chart
|69
|-
!scope="row"|Swiss Albums Chart
|17
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums Chart
|30
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard 200
|60
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1990 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1990)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard New Age Albums Chart
| 9
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1991 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1991)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard New Age Albums Chart
| 17
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1992 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1992)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard New Age Albums Chart
| 5
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums Chart
| 100
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1993 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1993)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard New Age Albums Chart
| 2
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1994 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1994)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard New Age Albums Chart
| 9
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+1995 year-end chart performance for Watermark
!Chart (1995)
!Rank
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums Chart
| style="text-align:center;"|75
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1996 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1996)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums Chart
| 83
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1997 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1997)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard New Age Catalog Albums Chart
| 1
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1998 year-end chart performance for Watermark
! scope="col"| Chart (1998)
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard New Age Catalog Albums Chart
| 5
|}
Certifications
Release history
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! scope="col"| Country
! scope="col"| Date
! scope="col"| Format
! scope="col"| Label
|-
| Europe
| 19 September 1988
| rowspan="3"|
| WEA
|-
| rowspan=2| United States
| 10 January 1989
| Geffen
|-
| 11 December 1991
| Reprise
|-
| Japan
| March 2009
| CD
| Warner Music Japan
|-
| Worldwide
| 21 October 2016
| LP
|
|}