mp3: The Innocence Mission - Going Away
         The Innocence Mission - She May Turn Around
         The Innocence Mission - Lakes of Canada (sample)

web: The Innocence Mission Official Website

This album took me entirely by surprise.

I was sitting there minding my own business when I first heard the single “Snow.” It blew me away. It was not what I expected from the Innocence Mission.

What I knew of them was brief: a small group led by Karen and Don Peris, a married couple who had met in High School and are devout Catholics. I always thought of their sound as early Sixpence None The Richer meets 10,000 Maniacs: mellow, sweet, simple, religious. Not that I have any problems with that - it just never was my scene. My expectations as a result were always sort of low. The Innocence Mission - the name itself - had always struck me as some sort of directive for mass conversion. I have since come to realize that I was wrong. Birds of My Neighborhood has shown me that The Innocence Mission is not a crusade but a place where the longing, hope, and memories of simpler life take refuge, waiting for you to find them.

You probably have heard the Innocence Mission. In the mid-nineties they had a minor hit with the sweet but small song “Bright As Yellow”. It got moderate airplay in America and was featured in films like 1995’s Empire Records. A lovely pop song, you can play it to kindergarteners and not have to edit for content.

So when I heard “Snow” from their 1999 album Birds of My Neighborhood I was surprised. When I heard “Lakes of Canada” I was floored. When I heard “Going Away” I was sold. Karen Peris, singer and main songwriter for the group, has really achieved something here. The songs were recorded almost entirely at home spanning a long period of personal crisis and infertility that ultimately ended with the birth of her first child. Each song is almost precious, every line is a story (”This is the summer of your dad at the UN and the voice of Brian Wilson and the rain”), a mirror of current times and a prayer for simpler ones (”everything is changing while the day sky stays blue”). Images of childhood, of fear and of hope; of the expected and of loss, strung together with twinkling acoustic guitars and Peris’ own small, withering voice.

Birds of My Neighborhood was released in 1999, went missing and was reissued in 2005. I hope you like it.

Buy.