Public Service Announcement: there have been a very few threads here at IMWAN over the years about The Sundays and The Innocence Mission, so I thought I'd give the latter a little bit of deserving hype.

These guys are really GOOD! Well, 1 gal + then 3 now 2 guys. Their first album was released in 1989, and I count 11 of them so far, the last one in 2015. They are so similar to The Sundays and Mazzy Star, I have to do a double take sometimes to make sure whom I'm listening to. Especially if they pop up on Pandora. So check 'em out. Singer Karen Peris with the angelic voice, the guys with the acoustic guitars, sometimes jangly electric.

Here's one of my fave cuts by them, "Today" from their 2001 previously unreleased / lost & found comp "Small Planes." So if you're missing The Sundays, give these guys a try, and thank me later, ha... And spread the word, spread the word...







https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005O7S4/?tag=imwan-20

Here's The Innocence Mission with their best Mazzy Star impersonation, from 1995, "Bright As Yellow" from their GLOW CD. Wow...

Nice sounding Gretsch guitar. And she also reminds me a bit of Eddie Brickell (that era of music).

I like those two tracks, Robin. Does Innocence Mission have a "best of" compilation or can you offer a good starting point? Thanks!

Unfortunately they don't have a "best of" comp, Momo, having been on 3 or 4 labels over the years. Their first 2 albums are more pop-rock-alternative than the others, s/t The Innocence Mission and Umbrella. Their 3rd album Glow is probably their best. Then they lost their drummer and started mellowing out a bit with their next Birds Of My Neighborhood. Small Planes is a bunch of leftover tracks in between Glow and Birds. After that they turned into a more folk type of band from 2003 on, good stuff but not as interesting to me as their earlier stuff.

So for me, their best stuff is albums 1 s/t, 2 Umbrella, 3 Glow, and Small Planes, with Glow being their best.

Here's the whole Glow album, totally jangly fabulous:

They were apparently on various MTV shows in 1989 and 1995 (including 120 Minutes), but I don't remember them then. Here's their network TV debut on Letterman from around the time of their first album 1989, rockin' out, good stuff:

Thanks for the information and those suggestions, Robin. I will check those out!