Befriended will banish the January blues. The sixth album from the American trio the Innocence Mission is one of those folk-pop gems that leaves you feeling that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, even when it’s dark by mid-afternoon and you’re still trying to pay off your Christmas credit card bill.

Originally a quartet in the vein of 10,000 Maniacs — their 1995 album, Glow, was an indie hit at home — the band have recently been turning down their guitars and dispensing with drums and now seem to have settled on a calm and wistful sound somewhere between early 1970s Joni Mitchell, the Sundays and the Cocteau Twins. Mitchell is, in fact, a big fan of the band’s singer and songwriter, Karen Peris, who takes centre stage.

Peris’s sweet, slightly childlike vocals glide over the delicate guitars, sparse percussion and airy piano of Don Peris, her longtime bandmate and now husband, and Mike Bitt’s almost-there bass. There are haunting tunes that you can hum, such as When Mac Went Swimming and Walking Around, but overall Befriended is ethereal mood music that takes you to a simpler, more pleasant place. At times, it’s sad and sorrowful; loves lost, life’s ups and downs and tender childhood memories are recurring themes in Peris’s lyrics. And, boy, is there a lot of walking, usually through forests or under trees.

It’s not all a wallow in the past, however, and on the album closer, a husband-and-wife duet entitled Look for Me as You Go By, the Innocence Mission finally look to the future.

LISA VERRICO