Sun on the Square is the eleventh studio album by American alternative band The Innocence Mission, released in the United States via Badman Recording Co. and in Japan by P-Vine Records on June 29, 2018, with a European release following one week later on Bella Union. The record is available for streaming via Badman's official SoundCloud channel.
Composition and style
The band's lead vocalist and songwriter Karen Peris described the record as a "snapshot of a significant moment" in her life, as well as that of her husband Don, the band's lead guitarist. She said that lyrical content was predominantly inspired by "our son and daughter being older teenagers, which can mean possibility and hope for them but also the sadness of separation and my changing role as a mom, and the intensified awareness of the preciousness of life. So there is a lot about change on the album, and also about communication and the universal feelings of loneliness, but also of connectedness to other people through all of these shared feelings and experiences."
Karen said of "Green Bus": "I've always liked color words. They seem to have an ability all on their own to make a visual world, especially the word green [which naturally makes you think of trees and grass and various aspects of nature]. The feeling of the song is a longing to give something of worth, and searching for that thing. And the [word] 'bus' may have come about because of the guitar rhythm I was playing, which maybe has a circular motion, but also just of the idea of a quiet place to view the city from, and to think one's thoughts and decide where to go next." She also said that "Shadow of the Pines" was inspired by "the absence of a loved one, through change of some kind. Missing that person. Communicating over distance and holding that person in thought. So, this is a kind of lyric I seem to write repeatedly, in different ways, because of things that have happened and that loom in the future."
The album's title track was musically inspired by the work of Astrud Gilberto, while Karen said its lyrics were inspired by her "admiration for someone going out into the world bravely, and in kindness: the possibility for one person to be a light in the world—that love will prevail over fear." "Light of Winter" is a re-recording of "From the Trains", a song from the band's 2017 EP The Snow on Pi Day. Karen explained the difference between the two recordings: "When we recorded it for The Snow on Pi Day, it was mostly a guitar song, but I started playing it on piano after that and both [Don and I] heard some things that could be different. It was nice to be able to go back to that song and add the piano, pump organ and other things to make the interludes bigger, but to keep the verse as having all the space around Don's electric guitar part." She additionally said of the title change: "We were always calling it 'Light of Winter', which felt like the natural title because of the refrain, so we just renamed it, especially because it felt different enough from the first recording to be its own thing." "Star of Land and Sea" features lead vocals from Don Peris.
Release and promotion
Sun on the Square is their first release issued on Bella Union: a British independent record label founded by former Cocteau Twins guitarist and keyboardist Simon Raymonde. Karen and Don formed a friendship with Raymonde after Karen was asked to contribute vocals to "The Places We've Been"—a track on Lost Horizons' 2017 album Ojalá. The album was released on vinyl, with Bella Union in Europe pressing the record on transparent vinyl, while North American copies – pressed by Badman Recording Co. – were made using translucent green vinyl. "Shadow of the Pines" was the first song previewed from the album, after it appeared on episode 167 of The Big Takeover on April 2.
Lead single "Green Bus" followed on April 19; it was premiered on GoldFlakePaint. Two animated music videos – for "Green Bus" and "Look Out from Your Window" – have been released in promotion of the album, both of which were illustrated by Karen. The latter song was issued as a one-track digital single via streaming services on May 31. In August, Karen and Don performed a live session for Paste, performing three songs from Sun on the Square: "Green Bus", "Light of Winter" and "Buildings in Flower". In November, they performed two of the aforementioned songs – as well as "Tomorrow on the Runway", from 2003's Befriended – during a feature for NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concerts series.