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From The Desk Of Aloha: The Innocence Mission’s “The Innocence Mission”

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Tony Cavallario: The Innocence Mission is mostly known as a husband and wife duo that puts out consistently great, reverant folk albums, sometimes hyped by fellow faith-affiliated acts like Sufjan Stevens. I’m agnostic at best, but the Innocence Mission is one of my favorite bands, and my relationship with their music is fairly spiritual. I look to Karen Peris for guidance, for compassion, to stay present, and to sort of check myself for a moral pulse. Her lyrics as poetry could stand on their own. Too sweet and wispy for some, for me that staring-at-the-sun purity is the hook, and I think of Peris is a Will Oldham-level enigma. That being said, I’ve never seriously considered their semi-disowned major label debut, made in 1988 way before “BrightAs Yellow” landed in Empire Records. But it came to me in a used record store, a pristine relic from the Camelot cut-out bin. I had no idea that the glossy production would be right in my ‘80s-loving wheelhouse and that Karen could sing with Kate Bush theatricality. Years of Prefab Sprout records hipped me to the fact that a literary, folk-rock sensibility could thrive among synth pads, and shimmering guitars. Singles “Black Sheep Wall” and “Wonder Of Birds” are on par with singles from 10,000 Maniacs, Toad The Wet Sprocket and other light alternative bands that had breakthroughs at the dawn of alt rock. Watching the videos, it’s obvious that Peris had serious star power. But even in 1988 the production might have been a bit dated, too fancy and too refined. It’s not on the same level as the Sundays’ debut some 18 months later, which channeled The Cure and Cocteau Twins while Harriet Wheeler low-key channeled Morrissey. But Innocence Mission fans might be lucky that the Innocence Mission didn’t blow up back then, as in 1995 they reappeared, more modest and organic in sound and image, Karen in a vintage housedress, more in synch with the times. Yet clearly on the austere path that would lead them to Befriended and other hushed, intimate classics.

Video after the jump.