Ivy
Traces of You
Bar/None
Listen Below
“In the winter and early spring of 2020, Dominique and I were talking to Adam about doing another Ivy album,” Andy Chase confided when I interviewed him and Dominique Durand back in 2022, in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of their 1997 album Apartment Life. “And then, of course, COVID hit and Adam passed away. So, we're revisiting all of it now. … And I don't know, maybe there'll be another Ivy album.”
Three years later, and that glimmer of hope Chase alluded to during our conversation has thankfully become a reality in the form of a full-fledged new album entitled Traces of You.
Ivy’s first LP to see the light of day since their sixth studio album All Hours arrived fourteen years ago in 2011, Traces of You presents ten new songs developed from archival recordings, unearthed demos, and unfinished songs from 1995 to 2012, which Chase and Durand recently excavated from a Rhode Island storage unit.
Each of the ten compositions contains elements—indeed traces—of music recorded by their late bandmate Adam Schlesinger, who passed away from COVID-19 complications in April 2020. To bring these songs to life, Chase and Durand summoned the support of former touring keyboardist/guitarist Bruce Driscoll, who worked diligently with the duo to revitalize these archival recordings and contribute lyrics to the songsmithing process. Featuring guest contributions from Fountains of Wayne’s Brian Young and Jody Porter, Joey Waronker and Eric Matthews, among other trusted colleagues, Traces of You is a thoughtfully conceived, exquisitely executed record that functions as both a loving eulogy for Schlesinger and a poignant homage to the indelible experiences they shared as a band.
“The Midnight Hour” opens the album in sterling fashion courtesy of its simple yet striking melody, with Durand’s soft “doo doo doo”-based cooing sure to be lodged in your mind upon first listen. From there, several standout songs surface, including the haunting “Fragile People,” a poignant examination of human fallibility and vulnerability. “Unintentionally, the song stirred up something really melancholy for us—in a very specific way—about Adam,” Durand explains in an official statement. “It's influenced by the loss of someone like him, but we did it in a way that's very subtle. There's a ghostly feeling in the meaning of the lyrics.”
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The plaintive title track “Traces of You” can be interpreted, more generally, as a lament for lost love, but also understandably a knowing nod to Schlesinger in lines like, “All the innocent days when we all used to play / It feels strange when they all start to fade / I wish I could have known it would all go away / Still I wouldn’t know what to say.”
Atmospheric lead single “Say You Will” floats along a lustrous, multi-layered arrangement awash in vocal echoes, followed by the noticeably buoyant, brass-laden “Heartbreak” that somewhat incongruously—yet beautifully—likens love to a “fiction” and “affliction.”
Other highlights emerge with the foreboding “The Great Unknown” that accentuates Durand’s vocal range, the downbeat portrait of an enigmatic figure in “Mystery Girl,” and “Wasting Time,” which unfolds as a sobering exploration of a love gone cold. The album concludes with the grievous but gorgeously executed “Hate That It’s True,” with Schlesinger’s acoustic guitar strumming serving as the song’s meditative musical foundation.
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Traces of You serves as a shining testament to the enduring power of Ivy’s musical partnership and reaffirms their proven penchant for conjuring pop melodies of the most pristine order. And although the album understandably embraces a somber, ruminative tone overall, this doesn’t undermine the fact that having a brand new set of Ivy songs to feast our ears upon offers a lot of joy to those of us who have championed the band for three decades now.
The band have recently alluded to the prospect of a second, follow-up installment of reconstructed songs from the same vault next year and possibly even an accompanying tour to complement the releases, all of which should only add to the celebratory reception these efforts deserve.
Notable Tracks: “Fragile People” | “Hate That It’s True” | “Heartbreak” | “Say You Will”
BUY Traces of You via Bandcamp
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