Search - The Innocence Mission :: Befriended

An Interesting Project By A Silent Witness Band

Indiana Jeff Reynolds | Indianapolis, IN USA | 05/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first discovered Innocence Mission in 1992, when I saw their five song '86 EP at a thrift store, and enjoyed it. A couple of years later, I heard one song, "And Hiding Away", from a more recent project. On those songs, lead singer Karen Peris sounded like a young girl. This project came out in 2003, 17 years after that first project. Karen's picture makes her look like she's in her late 30's. But her voice sounds as young as ever. (Note--Don Peris does the final song, "Look For Me As You Go By".)



Innocence Mission has managed to maintain a balance of not sounding Christian enough lyrically to scare off unbelievers, but with enough imagery to show the presence of their faith. For example, Amy Grant saw something in one of the songs from the above mentioned EP, "Shadows", and included it on her 1988 project "Lead Me On".



Those who have read my reviews know I can be tough on the content of lyrics of Christian singers. After all, being a Christian for over a quarter of a century, I want songs that build me up spiritually on the music in my collection. Innocence Mission is not overtly Christian, but they never had been. I only heard the one song ("And Hiding Away") on Christian radio, on a program that also included Collective Soul's "Shine" on their play-list. Therefore, I'm more tolerant with them than those who start out marketing their projects to Christians (e.g. Sixpence None The Richer, former band of Leigh Nash).



My favorite tracks on this project are "Tomorrow On The Runway", "When Mac Was Swimming", "Beautiful Change", "One For Sorrow, Two For Joy", "Sweep Down Early", and "Walking Around"."