THE INNOCENCE MISSION
We Walked In Song
4AD
· The grass grows greener.
Despite their rather inauspicious beginnings as 10,000 Maniacs copycats, the Innocence Mission soon developed into a unique and tragically underappreciated musical group. The band’s finest moments (in particular the Birds of My Neighbourhood album, re-released by Badman last year after an all-too-long absence from stores) approach the elegant beauty of the Velvet Underground’s prettiest ballads, and We Walked in Song is no exception.
Karen Peris (alongside husband Don and bassist Mike Bitts) has a voice unlike any other. Her songs are simple, lush and elegant, full of breath and gently struck strings. If Michael Stipe cribbed much of his act from Patti Smith, it’s easy to see Karen Peris’s shadow standing tall over Sufjan Stevens (who has been known to cover The Innocence Mission’s "Lakes of Canada." Not much really changes with The Innocence Mission from album to album (the lovely "Into Brooklyn, Early in The Morning" could’ve sat comfortably on Birds, and even shuffles along to the same beat), but the notes they strike are so pristine it doesn’t much matter. "Since I Still Tell You My Every Day" is the type of love song most musicians spend a career trying to master. "My Sister’s Return from Ireland" asks simply, "What did you see?/ Green fields forever?" It’s just another genuinely moving moment in a catalogue of consistently moving work.
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