The Innocence Mission

The latest ImageUpdate has some good things to say about the most recent release from one of my favourite bands, The Innocence Mission:

"Having reached the end of their second decade together, The Innocence Mission recently released their seventh full length album, We Walked in Song. Masters of understatement, the band extends its oeuvre in this album by inhabiting the beauty of common things. “Oh, undeserved sweetness and light,” Karen Peris sings near the beginning of the album, “stay by my side. / We will go out in the morning now.” This statement, then, becomes the album’s trajectory. Throughout eleven songs—all written by Karen—the lyrics gaze at the dazzling grace of particular people and locales. On the album’s wistful opening track, “Brotherhood of Man,” the song’s narrator recalls airports, subways, and a certain girl from Spain. New York plays a central role on “Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning,” a song dealing with the emotions of departures and arrivals: “Beautiful life, full of grieving, / so will sing the Russian choir, / they will sing in the square / as you come down through the Brooklyn air.” For all its geographical specificity, however, We Walked in Song remains an album focused on the human—and the human pondering the transcendent—in everyday life. With “My Sisters Return from Ireland,” the album concludes on a tenuous note of hope: “What did you see? / …If somebody calls to me / I’m hoping to not fear, not fear to answer. / How will it be?” Following in the footsteps of Befriended and Now the Day is Over, the new album has been well received by critics and fans alike. Pitchfork Media calls We Walked in Song “…a testament to the durable, slow-burn beauty of their work, and their softness of touch—a light that rarely feels lite.” Recorded in 2006 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, We Walked in Song was engineered and mixed by Don Peris, and features Karen and Don Peris and Mike Bitts. The band has recently concluded a brief tour of the East Coast."