Herrlich. Und: Himmlisch. Mehr als zwei Jahre sind vergangen, seit die Ida-Kernzelle Daniel Littleton und Elizabeth Mitchell sich nach Erscheinen von Heart Like A River zurückzogen, um unter anderem in Levon Helm’s Studio in den Catskills Ruhe und Inspiration zu finden. Jetzt kehren sie mit einer 14-Songkollektion (auf Vinyl sogar 16!), die auch die höchsten Erwartungen übertrifft. In gläsern-durchscheinenden Arrangements, mit wenigen akustischen Instrumenten im Vordergrund und sparsam gestreuten Gastauftritten von Schlagwerk, Steel-Guitar, Banjo, Mundharmonika, Ukulele und einem Streichensemble, schaffen die beiden scheinbar mühelos Momente von irisierender Zerbrechlichkeit im schimmernden Spannungsfeld zwischen Folk-Reinheit, Americana-Roots und Westcoast-Sonne. Die in der Einsamkeit zur edlen Reife gewachsenen Songs reichen sie im wechselnden Lead- und perfektem Paargesang dar, verleihen den reine Natürlichkeit atmenden Lieder dadurch einen Zauber, der einzigartig ist. Das reine ehrliche Gefühl, der ausgeprägte Sinn für das Schöne und Wahre, in 14 Songs gegossen, die uns einen Blick auf die Ewigkeit gönnen. Auch wenn ihr Americana-Stil-Begriff ein weiter ist, gleichzeitig oder nacheinander Vergleiche mit Innocence Mission, Kings Of Convenience, Low, den Cowboy Junkies oder dem Young-Neil zu Comes A Time-Zeiten zulässt, so bewegen sie sich inzwischen in einem Bereich, der Vergleiche müßig werden lässt. Gestattet mir den einen noch: Hätten Bonnie Prince Billy und Rosie Thomas ein gemeinsames Wunschkind, sein Name wäre Ida.

(Glitterhouse)

Ida, the New York band that's built its sound on the sadness of love and clean harmonies, returned to Polyvinyl for Lovers Prayers, the group's eighth full-length, which offers every promise the others provided: pretty melodies, carefully conceived songs, and plenty of gentle, sweeping instrumentals that drone lightly under Dan Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell's careful vocals. Longtime collaborator Tara Jane O'Neil contributes her guitar and drums here, go-to cellist Jane Scarpantoni stays busy on tracks like "For Shame of Doing Wrong" (a Richard & Linda Thompson cover), and Warren Defever returns to produce the album, which was recorded at the Band's Levon Helm's studios (the drummer also plays on "First Light"), but this is all backdrop to the couple's voices — with some help from Karla Schickele, who sounds a lot like Aimee Mann and complements the others nicely — which lay softly but effectively over one another, guiding the songs in their earnestness. Littleton, interestingly, often takes the higher part (in the very Caetano Veloso-esque "The Love Below," for example), letting Mitchell's low whisper take the lead. The songs themselves are sweet, or sometimes bittersweet, reflections on love and life, but unlike other Ida albums, which often include less atmospheric pieces, Lovers Prayers hardly changes tempo or approach. Yes, "See the Stars" uses pedal steel and even has something of an electric guitar solo, "Worried Mind Blues," as the title suggests, uses standard 12-bar blues progressions off of which to build, and "The Killers 1964" (in reference to the Don Siegel film, and perhaps the only indie folk song to mention Ronald Reagan's acting career) offers its own variation to the album's overall approach, but most of the album moves along at a slow, steady pace, which has the unfortunate tendency to overemphasize the overly saccharine lines ("I love you more than a thousand suns, morning rain on a butterfly's wings," from the closer "Blue Clouds," for example). Still, the record's a lovely one, gentle and lush and subtly gorgeous, more than enough to make up for the occasional shortcoming.

(by Marisa Brown, All Music Guide)