Sometimes the unlikely makes perfect sense. The new Ivy album is as much about the late Adam Schlesinger as it is about Dominique Durand and Andy Chase, the two surviving bandmates of the first iteration of the group. The legacy of Schlesinger is in these grooves, and the tunes are both a re-affirmation of his talents, and a new chapter in the sound of these Nineties-era indie charmers.
While Ivy never officially broke up, Adam's tragic death from COVID in 2020 seemed to have made the trio's dissolution in 2011 permanent. In recent years, Dominique and Andy started working on new material using demos and song fragments recorded in years past with Adam Schlesinger. Add in a new band member, Bruce Driscoll, and contributions from Brian Young and Jody Porter (both in Fountains of Wayne with Adam), and Eric Matthews (Cardinal), and you have a record with a full sound. Of course, it still sounds like Ivy, and for anyone who liked the band's earlier albums, Traces of You is sure to warm the ears and heart.
Things kick off with the New Order-y "The Midnight Hour", while the bottom-heavy "The Great Unknown" finds Ivy sounding just a little intense. The modest heft of those numbers is countered by the longing in the elegant "Traces of You", and the deftly sleek pop of "Say You Will", the comeback single. Elsewhere, "Hate That It's True" is as close as this threesome's ever gotten to sounding like a famed trio on the other side of the Atlantic, namely Saint Etienne. The track, a highlight here, is elegiac but catchy, heavy yet nimble, with an awareness of the loss of Adam Schlesinger hanging over the lyrical concerns. While not necessarily explicitly about his death, that sense of loss lingers here, and in other portions of the record.
And yet for all that, Traces of You is surprisingly lively. Dominique Durand's vocals were always capable of evoking both joy and sadness, and they still do. In the service of sleek electro-pop, her voice is a marvel here. The compositions are bright and precise, and a listener obviously brings some awareness of the absence of Adam Schlesinger to this, creating songs both light and dark. Reborn, Ivy can't help but sound like their past selves, and Traces of You is not so much a sad record, as one where the players are attempting to find joy and move forward. Add in the death of their label champion Mark Lipsitz as the new single was going out, and it's a marvel that this record even exists. Still, times are grim for many of us in this country, and Traces of You at least soothes the pain for a spell, offering beauty and awareness of its loss at the same time.
Traces of You by Ivy is out on Friday. Details below and via Bar/None Records.
[Photo: Michelle Shiers]