Customer Reviews

Now the Day Is Over

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Here's something a little different from The Innocence Mission. According to their label's website, Now The Day Is Over is a selection of songs IM singer Karen Peris sang to her children as lullabies. Her singing of these tunes is marvelously simple, with minimal accompaniment. The purity and sweetness of Karen's vocals remind me a little of another of my favorite singers, Astrud Gilberto, singing bossa nova songs 40 years ago. The songs on Now The Day are a mixture of standards, movie songs, traditionals, hymns, and a few odds and ends. The common thread is a gentle spirit and a love for the original melodies. The cover versions are broken up by two nice instrumental guitar interludes from Don Peris, pieces by Chopin and Beethoven. Karen also contributes one new song of her own, "My Love Goes With You." The whole disc is a very peaceful and relaxing collection of music. The version of the Disney classic "Stay Awake" (from Mary Poppins) is the best I've heard since Suzanne Vega did it several years ago.

And that is why I hope you will buy this album.

In it, you will hear an enchanting set of lullabies, all fresh fodder for nighttime singing. Karen Peris' voice is, as always, fresh and full of verve. Imperfect though it may be, it resonates at just the frequency for teaching other adults these songs. Listen to the CD. You will love the tunes. But, more importantly:

You will learn each of these canons properly, so that you may sing them quietly and lovingly to a child in your life.

I guarantee, one of these, crooned at each bedtime, will send your little one off to quick bliss. If -you- were still a child, this is the way you would want to be treated.

Buy the CD. Support an amazing band. Learn the songs. Sing them to a child. You will be repaid one million times for your effort.

If you're still in love with your mate, consider singing him or her one of these lullabies at bedtime. If you no longer love your mate, then DEFINITELY do so. Quietly, overnight, your world will improve.

Lullabies have that power.

Now That the Day Is Over is not the best or even an essential Innocence Mission album. However, having said that it does what it sets out to do and in a charming and disarming manner. It delivers a dozen or so gentle ballads that never ruffle and often sooth.
The band has never "rocked out" much and on this disc the music is even slighter, which means that Karen Paris' voice carries much of the record. She has a nice, even voice that works fairly well, but I think stronger backing would have made for a better experience.
The song selection is top notch, although songs like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" are clichés that the Innocence Mission do not bring anything new too.

A nice Cd for younger children. If you picked up on the Innocence Mission with this record or are curious then you really should pick up their timeless debut and Glow. From there anything else is good as well, but start with those two.

This album is EXACTLY what it is meant to be. Beautiful favorite songs sung as lullabies. While nursing and/or rocking your baby, this is a must have in your sleepy-time music collection. It's relaxing and absolutely perfect. Sweet dreams to all tired babies and mommies. Oh, and daddies too.

In the winter of '89-'90, I picked up The Innocence Mission's eponymous debut on cassette one evening in a mall in Muncie. During my solitary rural Indiana backroads return to Taylor Univ., I was introduced to the delightfully solid intangibility of these troubadours of Heart, Soul, and Mind. I wanted Don and Karen Peris to mother and father me, or to marry Karen, or to be a brother or sister of one, to experience in my life the meaningful connections that in song resonated on and strong without dwindling into the inevitable nihilism that so much of art does nowadays. (Soon realized they were Catholic Universalists or something like that.)Fan for life.

And so, I kept up with their oeuvre. Enjoying the experimental phases of beauty along with the return to simple folk beauty. "Bright as Yellow", on "Glow", piqued the world's interest on the "Empire Records" soundtrack. They toured at least a little with Lilith Fair one year. I found later they've done a blatantly spiritual album "Christ Is My Hope", and that Don (genius of guitar understatement/suggestion) has a couple of his own albums out. I still need to get those 3.

Anyway, the idea of a lullaby album from The Innocence Mission is so perfectly obvious that I never expected it. I mean, she sang songs to her "Someday Coming Child" (on "Umbrella") years before she birthed!

It is as perfect as it could be. Minimal in performance, maximal in effect. (With 3 little boys, I'm a connoisseur of artfully-lulling lullaby albums. Get the Disney Lullaby Album too--no, really--Greg Diakun and Fred Mollin create real art right under DisneyCorp's nose.)

Finally, Karen can sing me to sleep--and my family too.

This album was my first exposure to Innocence Mission. I listen to it over and over, and sometimes leave it playing when I go to bed. I love this album so much I want to share it. So far others have been polite about it, except one bi-polar friend who said it made him cry.

I fell in love with the innocence mission last winter, often listening walking around in snowy Germany, feeling the surreal. While this is not the album to showcase their talent, the lullabies seem a perfect fit for their sound. They are scaled down, and Karin Peris' sweet voice is as soft as can be. I never before desired to feel so young and innocent.

When I bought the CD, I was glad to see that it had 13 tracks. I had hoped that would mean more music than the last, unfortunantely, it is only 30 minutes. As soon as it ends, I have to play it again. My favorite is "Somewhere over the rainbow" and I like the first half if the CD better than the second. It's still all good (unlike too many CD's I waste my money on), so it was well worth it.

When the approach here is, less is more, I admire this CD, not for the display of musical strength, but for the mood it creates. This is one of my new favorites.

I have this problem; whenever I find a CD that I think is particulalrly good, I tend to play it at least two times in a row, more if it's especially good....I played "now the day is over" four or five times in a row the first night I had it, and I dont think a night has gone by yet that I didn't listen to it at least once. I've only recently come to know about Innocence Mission, and this is actually my first disc of theirs. I.M. has quickly become my new addiction, and alot of that has to do with the great detail and care they put into these classic songs I recall as a child myself.The tenderness and love in these songs is evident from the first notes of "Stay awake" to the last chord of "Now the day is over".

One more thing; Karen Peris' voice absolutely haunts me. It's a rare talent that I've only found in the likes of Lisa Gerard of Dead Can Dance, Niamh Parsons, Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk and Melissa Rae Mileski of Rosewater Elizabeth. I've heard Karen's vocals compared to the likes of Natalie Merchant's, but I dont think that does her justice.No offense meant to Ms.Merchant, but Karens voice has a haunting, rich, melancholy sweetness behind it that leaves you wanting more. A grand album and a grand band all around. Buy this CD, you wont be sorry.

I play this album every evening as I hold my baby before putting him to bed and let it play as he falls asleep. I think it is a beautiful album that I don't weary of, even when I hear it every night.

Perfect for nap time and bedtime, especially for younger children (3 and under). Karen Peris's voice is perfect for lullabies. "Now the day is over" is my favorite in the bunch, and my only compaint is that the selections are not longer.