Description
Birds of my Neighborhood is the fourth full-length album by the American alternative folk/pop band The Innocence Mission, released on RCA Records in August 1999. Drummer and founding member Steve Brown left the band prior to the recording of the album.
Together with husband Don and bassist Mike Bitts, Karen Peris has recorded four albums under the name Innocence Mission since 1988, all cut in their home base of Lancaster, Pa. The latest work was written and recorded during a domestic drama. The Perises tried, over a protracted period, to conceive a child, succeeding only when the album itself came to term. Small wonder, then, that the album captures a mood of hard-won optimism. It sounds both beautiful and barren.
Many of the songs employ merely a pair of soft acoustic guitars. Others add a bit of bass or a tap of percussion. The production makes the most of every instrument, creating a surprisingly clean and spacious sound, with each instrument made to glisten. Consider it an ideal soundtrack to the coming snowy season.
The dry instrumentation contrasts nicely with the richness of the tunes. They’re so pretty it hurts, alluding to a host of ’60s references. There’s the jangle of West Coast folk-rock, drawn from the Byrds or the Mamas and the Papas, and the shadowy beauty of the Velvet Underground’s acoustic interludes.
«You Are the Light» sounds like a lost cousin to the Velvet’s «All Tomorrow’s Parties», lacking only its aura of heroin chic.
The group isn’t shy about making its influences clear. Several songs allude to Neil Young lyrics; one mentions him by name, another name-drops Brian Wilson.
The album includes one cover song: John Denver’s «Follow Me», which soars – in sharp contrast from his saccharine original. Their version makes the most of the song’s melody – and makes obvious its connection to Bob Dylan’s «Blowin’ in the Wind».
Peris’ own songs stand up to those of her role models: The opening, «Where Does the Time Go?» plays off the title of Sandy Denny’s best-known tune, and earns its company.
As sturdy as these songs sound individually, the effect is magnified when swallowed whole. The brief, 37-minute album boasts a focused philosophy and mood. Nearly every song finds Peris planting seeds of belief.
In «The Lakes of Canada», she encourages herself to try to change. In «July», she allows the first light of hope in, while during «She May Turn Around» she discovers a key step in fostering faith: to admit you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
It’s hard to make optimism convincing in the glib world of pop. But Peris does so by not idealizing her feelings. When she sings about seeing “too much light to deny,” she’s admitting the doubt that preceded her faith. To stress it, her tone communicates as much wariness as uplift.
Far from an innocent, Peris seems a veteran of torment who came to joy through wisdom. The band’s glorious music finds a wonderful way to share it. [Jim Farber, New York Daily News, December 1999]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/birds-of-my-neighborhood/268535055)
CD tracklist:
01. Where Does The Time Go? – 3:31
02. Snow – 3:45
03. Follow Me – 3:17
04. The Lakes Of Canada – 4:33
05. You Are The Light – 2:54
06. Birdless – 3:33
07. I Haven’t Seen This Day Before – 2:09
08. She May Turn Around – 2:15
09. I Was In The Air – 2:35
10. July – 3:22
11. Going Away – 3:03
12. Green Grass, Red Tree – 2:20
Note: A 2004 Limited Edition CD pressing featuring the two bonus tracks “Moon River” and “Prayer Of St. Francis” was sold on website while original album was out of print (came in paper sleeve with window). A remastered version of the original album was re-issued in April 2006 by Badman Recording Co. Remastered and re-issued on 12-inch vinyl LP by Kneeling Elephant Records in 2021 (pressed on both black and Translucent Green Blue vinyl). Available at Bandcamp: https://theinnocencemission.bandcamp.com/album/befriended-2
Sufjan Stevens – “The Lakes of Canada”
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