The music of Karen Peris would be special even if she didn't sing. That's an odd thing to say about one of the most recognizable voices of the last 30 years, but the musician crafts a sonic world where her unique vocals make up another precious element. A Song is Way Above The Lawn, the artist's new one on Bella Union, blends chamber pop, folk, and minimalism in the service of compositions which are as light as air, and as precious as gems.
While there are things here that will make a fan, or even a casual listener recall The Innocence Mission, Karen Peris' previous band, there are others that place this closer to work from Virginia Astley than anyone else. "To the Library" progresses with a quaint deliberateness, while "I Would Sing Along" is a succcessful approximation of a less iconoclastic Rickie Lee Jones. Peris favors the kind of arrangements here that bands like The Left Banke used in the past, or The Clientele use now, but the material routinely retains a grace that sets it apart from much else in the marketplace right now.
A Song is Way Above the Lawn is full of tunes that seem rarefied, and one could, perhaps, be turned off by the whole enterprise's preciousness. Still, Karen Peris' voice is so lovely, the music so achingly right, that it would be churlish to simply shut oneself off to the pleasures here. Contemplative, inward-looking, and elegant in spots, this whole record maintains a mood that worked for me.
A Song is Way Above the Lawn is out tomorrow via Bella Union.
More details via TheInnocenceMission.com.
[Photo: Bella Union]