Send "Innocence Mission " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 When you pick up an album from a band with a name like the Innocence Mission, you pretty much know you’re not getting heavy metal. Yep, this Pennsylvania quartet (featuring husband and wife songwriting team Karen and Don Peris) has been chugging along, mostly under the radar, since the late ‘80s, sticking faithfully to their established blend of smooth, dreamy, inoffensive guitar pop and the occasionally psuedo/occasionally blatant Christian lyrics.The Innocence Mission’s ninth full-length album, My Room in the Trees, is an acoustic affair, from the fingerpicked guitars to the double-bass to the brushed drums. It’s quiet, reflective music, perfect for rainy day cooking or reclining in a bay window on a Sunday afternoon with a book. (Starbucks, you should be jumping on this!) Remember when I mentioned the word “inoffensive”? Keep that in mind. My Room‘s quiet acoustic template is at first intoxicating. The album opens with “Rain (Setting Out in the Leaf Boat)”, a lullaby as delicate as the title suggests, unfolding with simple guitar strums and Peris’ vocal yawns before strings appear, presenting a haunting melodic refrain. By the time Peris has begun echoing the melody by humming along with it, you’ll be swept away in the leaf boat, too. “The Happy Mondays” has a melody so lilting and familiar, it’s hard not to keep wondering where they accidentally stole it. Peris’ instrumental backing is so tasteful and well-placed, every nuance has maximum impact, from the charmingly poor drumming to the timid piano flourishes. In the words department, it’s hard to imagine finding lyrics more “innocent” than: “The happy Mondays, we blow down alleyways / In our raincoats, in afternoons / The imaginary dogs beside us are old friends / They will speak to you.” Peris channels the reflections of a Pennsylvania grade school student, and she nails it with a childlike delivery that keeps the gooeyness in check....full text |
| Thehurstreview |
| My review of the new Innocence Mission, the charmingly titled My Room in the Trees, is posted at CT. The Innocence Mission is a band that I have loved for a long time. I first became aware of them with 1999′s Birds of My Neighborhood, an album that I still regard as a masterpiece of purity and poetry. From there I worked backward in their catalog and came to cherish many of their earlier records– particularly the more pop-oriented Glow and the atmospheric Umbrella– and also Befriended, their very fine, meditative work from 2003. From there, I found their music to lose some steam; the couple of albums they released after Befriended both sounded like the work of a band running out of ideas and inspiration. But with My Room in the Trees, I feel excited about them again: It doesn’t have a lot of new ideas in it, I’ll grant, but its execution is so graceful and lovely that I can’t help but be won over by the album’s strong songwriting, its heartfelt poetry, and its sheer beauty....full text |
| Muruch |
| The Innocence Mission will released their new album My Room In Trees on July 13th. Led by Karen Peris, The Innocence Mission is one of those bands that have been tragically under appreciated by the rest of the world. As I said in my review of their beautiful 2007 We Walked In Song: “I’ve been a fan of the band since 1995’s Glow, which I randomly bought on cassette back in the day without having heard even one note. Back then they were often compared to The Cranberries or The Sundays, but The Innocence Mission has long since broken free of any comparisons. The band has recorded and toured with Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, and 16 Horsepower among others. Most notable of these collaborations was the angelic duet of “When They Ring The Golden Bells” with Natalie Merchant on her Ophelia album.”...full text |
Innocence Mission lyrics
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