NEW MUSIC
SELECTIVE HEARING | Robert Berman
MADISON CUNNINGHAM flirt with the line between folk and jazz. Fans of most judicious, so as not to waken a sleeping
Who Are You Now Jill Phillips, Jacob Collier, and Suzanna Vega will baby or overwhelm Karen Peris’ ever-delicate
find much to digest here. vocal. Don Peris also takes a rare lead vocal turn
on “Mary Margaret in Mid-Air.”
THE INNOCENCE MISSION
COLONY HOUSE
See You Tomorrow
Leave What’s Lost Behind
How delightful that one of modern music’s most
mesmerizing muses is also one of the most
prolific. Mere months after her For the Sake of
the Rhyme EP heralded a change from acoustic
guitar to electric, and alongside ongoing The Innocence Mission are a whole lot of things. work in Chris Thile’s band and Andrew Bird’s, Mainstream enough to appear on NPR’s Tiny On their latest outing, the Chapman brothers
Cunningham somehow released another whole Desk web concert series. Christian enough to lean into the “pop” side of their pop/rock
album. Her fingerwork recalls Mark Knopfler, record a hymns album (2000’s Christ Is My Hope). equation more intensely. “Looking for Some
but her dry, wry vocals come from the Leonard Well enough known by their peers to write songs Light” describes the peculiar role that touring
Cohen school of observational writing, covering for Amy Grant and Kim Hill, and record with Julie musicians play in encouraging their audiences
her upbringing in a worship leader’s family Miller, Sufjan Stevens, and Natalie Merchant. while “Original Material” covers the well-known
“Saturday morning, eleven a.m., I heard Mom Obscure enough to go shopping in Lancaster, stressors of the touring lifestyle. A triptych track
and Dad talking money again. A seven-member PA without drawing a crowd. Successful “The Runaway” provides breather interludes
family in a five-seater van, I guess all you can enough to put out album after album without the at three points throughout the album. The title
do is the best that you can.” Judging by the pressure of conforming to every breaking wave song’s drum track deserves special mention,
testimony of the songs, professional success of pop music fads. Even the physical package with a variety of off-kilter rhythms teasing the
in the music industry has taken a toll (as heard is old fashioned, including long-forgotten treats listener to listen more closely than a straight
on “Trouble Found Me,” “Plain Letters”). The like printed lyrics. No autotune; no whoops; no backbeat would require. The spiritually minded
South African 12/8 lilt of “L.A. (Looking Alive)” I-V-iv-IV. Just songs full of the hope and childlike “Where I’m From” cleverly offers a vision of the
describes life in cutthroat Los Angeles “Taking a wonder that their group name implies. Songs heavenly future instead of the past. Sonics recall,
drive down the 5… the drivers take the last bit of about drinking coffee with your mom (“On Your by turns, a truckful of modern bands: For King
goodness I have,” while “Something to Believe Side”) or enjoying the sights of a state park (“How and Country, twentyone pilots, OneRepublic,
In” dramatizes the difficulty in trusting people tall were the pines? That shade of green, where Maroon 5. “Take It Slow” recalls Killers-style
after you’ve been burned. The sparsely string- have I seen it?” in “At Lake Maureen”) or driving indie rock. Best of all, “Julia” may be too offbeat
driven “Like You Do” finds her in a romantically to meet a friend’s train (“The clouds that race me for a single, but it makes for a delightful palate
confessional mode. “There’s something in me might be trailing in colors over the lawns, and out cleanser, a love song melding a dirty, low-fi guitar
strong enough to kill something in you… I see of this song” in “I Would Be There”). The music hook with a sweet string section.
the darkness in me when I try to find it in you.” remains stubbornly, steadfastly antiquated, with The delicated, hushed “Bound” closes out forty wheezing pump organ challenging acoustic minutes of music that ends too soon. Like Joni guitar, piano, and Mike Bitts’ upright bass in a Mitchell, her compositions and arrangements contest as to which can be the quietest, the 52 March 2020
Robert Berman
Robert is a Sunday School teacher, music nerd,
and acoustic guitar enthusiast. He lives in rural
Tennessee with his wife and three boys.
Subscribe for Free...