The Innocence Mission started out as something of a shoegazer band in the late 1990s, but midway through their life they've taken on an even more introspective and intimate tone. Like guitarist Don Peris's solo album, Go When the Morning Shineth, this sounds like it could have been recorded in somebody's parlor a century ago, with just Mike Bitts on basses and Karen and Don Peris on guitars and keyboards. And when I say keyboards, I don't mean synthesizers, but pump organs, Hammond organs, and piano, the instruments of bygone years. They often hover like dusty ghosts in the background of songs that read like diary entries. The most modern this album gets is a quaint, late '50s pop-ballad ambience on tunes like "Lake Shore Drive" and "Love That Boy," which sound like something Sandra Dee or Debbie Reynolds' would have sung--although they would never have allowed the fractured vulnerability revealed by Karen Peris. She has a voice with the fragility and sadness of a fallen autumn leaf, often intentionally breaking at the edges of her range. But We Walked in Song isn't an album of sadness--rather of quiet joy and peace of mind. The husband-and-wife team of Karen and Don Peris have been together since they were in high school, and most of Karen's songs reflect on their lives, relationships, and children. We Walked in Song isn't an album that leaps out and grabs you: it's a diary of autumnal moods that celebrates the small moments in life, and like life, quietly insinuates itself into yours. --John Diliberto