In a Lifetime

Clannad's music has always been suited for soundtracking that evocative feeling that seizes you when you're standing on top of a desolate, barren hill in the dead of a bleak County Donegal winter: the haunting strains of the ubiquitous Uillean pipes; the tasteful, ethereal synth patterns; the overall mystical melancholia that is practically built into Celtic melody; and at the heart of it all, the spine-tingling, heartbreakingly beautiful contralto of vocalist Maire Brennan, who still sounds heavenly after close to three decades in the business. Make no mistake: throughout Clannad's long residency in the music industry, there has been not been a whiff of naffness about them: even when they decided to consciously shed some of the overt Celtic influences from their mid-1980s efforts onwards, they always kept the temptations of developing into a blatant pop collective at bay, preferring to introduce carefully minimal contemporary ingredients into their original framework. Check out a stellar example of Clannad's artistic aesthetic: the highly compelling 'In a Lifetime', a 1985 duet with U2 frontman Bono (but when he could still hit those difficult high notes), which is accompanied by a suitably windswept, cinematic video clip.