Album: We Walked in Song
Artist: Innocence Mission
Label: Badman Recordings
Sounds like: Natalie Merchant, The Carpenters

“Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens; bright copper kettles, the Innocence Mission; these are a few of my favourite things.” Karen Peris’s songs are like short stories or beautifully framed black-and-white photographs, focusing on friendship, memories, and the little joys and sorrows in life. Like Birds of my Neighbourhood and their recent albums of hymns and lullabies, the sound is light on percussion, and relies on melodies that meander like garden paths, Karen and Don Peris’s high guitars like sunlight through winter-bare tree limbs, and Karen’s voice like cracking ice. Their music is like all things small, delicate, beautiful and precious—in brown paper packages tied up with string.

Nicks rating: 4/5