This week’s Drop finds New York City expats Ida harmonizing on “Lovers Prayers,” the title track to their forthcoming seventh full-length, a series of, yup, prayers for and by lovers. Seems like we’ve been humming along to Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell for as long as we’ve known some of our best friends, but their simple, familiar sound remains as poignant as the first time we heard them (live at the Knitting Factory in the early ’90s, incidentally). Note, there’s not a possessive in “Lovers Songs” — guess it sorta belongs to everyone. Here’s Littleton to explain it some more:

You recorded the new album, mostly live, up at the in the Catskills. Why the rural change of pace/sound? I’ve heard bird calls enter the picture somewhere… what other new textures can we expect?
Liz and I live in the Catskills, so I suppose that is the primary reason for making recordings up here. Our last record was made in a relatively small room in a city, and then finished in our attic, an even smaller room. The Barn is a different type of environment altogether. It is pretty large, all wood, and in the woods. It is also Levon Helm’s home, and a place where people travel great distances to hear great musicians play loose and free. When you are there it feels like you are not in a normal studio at all. We really tried to record the ambience of the room. We wanted to hear the air around the sounds. If you listen closely enough you can hear the fireplace, a bird flying around the rafters knocking things over, tree frogs and insects. In the barn sounds seem to resonate and hang in the air in just the right way. The first time we played a show there, we barely sang into the mics, everything just sounded and felt so good. It is an inspiring space, and we felt lucky and privileged to play music there.

“Lovers Prayers” is the album’s title track. What does a lover pray for?
Otis Redding is a great resource on this matter. His meditation on this question is the very definition of soul, and should be very useful.

Lovers Prayers is out 2/19 on Polyvinyl.