Lovers Prayers

iTunes Review

Ida’s first album in three years, 2008’s Lovers Prayers, continues the unhurried walk down the bucolic path of its predecessors. Smooth, vibrant folk-influenced rock or soft rock-influenced folk? Either way it’s gentle music with a resilient backbone — ambient but never background — with shades of Elliot Smith and Big Star in Daniel Littleton’s falsetto for the affecting “The Weight of the Straw” and an intense, telepathic closeness in the harmonies between Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell throughout, but particularly striking on “Willow Tree.” Recorded mostly live at Levon Helm’s upstate NY studio, Lovers Prayer brings the intimate room onto the recordings. You can practically hear the footsteps of gatherers around the imagined fireplace as the music settles into a soothing groove for the surprisingly upbeat “Worried MInd Blues.” Violinist Jean Cook, NYC pedal steel guitarist Matt Sutton and multi-instrumentalist Tara Jane O’Neil add to the subtle, somber colorings. But for all their incidental niceties and pretty touches, Ida succeed with beautiful songs, whether it be Richard Thomson’s “For Shame of Doing Wrong” or one of the many fine Littleton compositions.