Send "Ivy " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Ivy instrumentalist Adam Schlessinger finds himself in the unique position of being a member of not one but two bands that must wonder where they fit in, in 2011. Fountains of Wayne, for whom Schlessinger is bass player and a principal songwriter, released Sky Full of Holes a matter of weeks before All Hours’ street date. Fountains of Wayne’s classic power-pop is at odds with current art-school and beard rock trends in “indie” music. “College rock” was how you might have identified Fountains of Wayne when their debut was released in 1996. Now the term no longer has meaning.When Ivy released their first couple albums in the mid-‘90s, college radio played them, too. Their more cosmopolitan, late-night sophisti-pop slotted in with the likes of Autour de Lucie, Saint Etienne, the Cardigans and the like. Now those bands have been relegated to cult status or disappeared completely. Pop music, indie or otherwise, comes with an obligatory set of ‘80s references. All Hours doesn’t go all synth-pop. But Ivy’s first album in half a decade does represent something of a rethink from the band. The trio of Schlessinger, fellow instrumentalist Andy Chase, and singer Dominique Durand constructed All Hours around programmed rhythms. Then, they added keyboards and clean guitar lines, rather than the other way around. The result is a crisp, often danceable album that sounds even more immaculate than the band’s previous work. The trade off is that Ivy lose some of the dynamics and dreamy, head-in-the-clouds feel that has made their best work special. The best thing you can say about music like this is it sounds deceptively effortless. That’s true of opener and lead single “Distant Lights”. The song starts out with an almost-house, four-on-the-floor rhythm and Space Invaders synth effects, before Durand’s voice drifts in. The whole song floats by without changing much at all, which seems to be the point. It’s slick, direct, and concise, if nothing else a confident statement of the band’s renewed sense of purpose. The problem is that sense of purpose is too often in service of undistinguished, flat-out boring songs. “Fascinated” tries for cold, European attitude, but Schlessinger and Chase can’t get beyond annoying keyboard flourishes, while Durand gets stuck repeating the title in place of a proper chorus. “You Make It So Hard” takes a different tack, straight-up jangly guitar pop a’la Acid House Kings. But, again with that obnoxious keyboard, it’s more cloying than charming. “She Really Got To You” is a transparent Saint Etienne rip, complete with gentle guitar arpeggio, punchy beat, and Eurodisco chorus with cooing. It’s catchy, but, like much of All Hours, it mainly reminds you of what others have done better....full text |
| Consequenceofsound |
| Ivy is the kind of band that everybody has inevitably heard, even if they don’t know it. Their dreamy lounge stylings have proven a hit among music licensers, and the band’s work has been an ubiquitous presence in television and film for over a decade. On their 1995 debut, Realistic, the New York trio began with a lo-fi, gentle pop sound that leaned toward the melodic. In the 16 years since that album, Ivy has ventured further into lush, atmospheric territory on four additional albums, including one full-length covers record. All Hours, the sixth offering from the three-piece, comes six years after their last release, In the Clear, and has been described by vocalist Dominique Durand as a “rebirth” that followed an extended hiatus of the band having “no idea where [they] were going for a long time.” This “rebirth” proves to be more than a spiritual one, a sonic rejuvenation swirling from the opener “Distant Lights” and onward. A perfect choice for a lead single, “Distant Lights” is the most danceable work from Ivy yet, thanks to an electronic beat that strikes the balance between controlled cool and unrelentingly mesmeric....full text |
| Nettskinny |
| "It's a rebirth," says Ivy singer Dominique Durand about All Hours [Nettwerk], the New York trio's new album and first release in six years. "We really had no idea where we were going for a long time. But in my mind, I knew I wanted to go back to some kind of innocence, and also a feeling of energy and excitement. I wanted to make a record based on those very basic sensations." Ivy have certainly journeyed far. The group was formed in 1994 when Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger convinced Parisian Dominique Durand, who had recently moved to New York and had no aspirations to be a singer, to venture into Chase's studio and try recording four new songs with them. Those recordings, which showcased Durand's intimate, distinctive - and at that point, heavily accented - vocals alongside Chase and Schlesinger's pop melodies and jangly guitars, quickly led to a record deal. Soon Ivy became a real working band, and Durand, who had previously been working as a photographer's assistant, found herself opening for acts like Oasis, Edwyn Collins, and St. Etienne. After receiving Melody Maker's "Single Of The Week" with their debut 7", "Get Enough", they released their debut EP, Lately, and then their first full-length LP, 1995's Realistic. However, it was with Apartment Life (1997) that they hit their stride. That album, which combined the simplicity and charm of their earlier work with growing sophistication and confidence in the recording studio, received glittering reviews and helped Ivy solidify a loyal fanbase. Long Distance (2001) continued on the trajectory established by Apartment Life, and contained the standout single "Edge Of The Ocean", which quickly became one of Ivy's signature songs and was licensed in numerous films, television shows, and commercials. The band released a covers record, Guestroom, in 2002, which revealed a mix of influences including Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens, Nick Heyward, and The House Of Love. Then, for 2005's In The Clear, the band enlisted the help of UK producer/mixer Steve Osborne, who had worked with favorites like New Order, Suede, and Doves. During the band's final, sold out New York show in support of In the Clear, in 2006, Durand closed the evening by simply saying "Goodbye," foreshadowing the band's impending hiatus. "When we did that gig, I had this feeling I wasn't going to be on stage with Ivy for a long time," she says. "It was an abstract feeling, but it was real. We didn't intend to, but we did disappear for a while." They didn't plan on being away so long. In fact, they initially discussed trying to make a record quickly, and they started working again in the studio soon after finishing that tour. "But when we first started recording, we were grasping for inspiration," says Schlesinger. "We did a lot of work, but honestly we weren't too excited about any of it." In fact, over the next few years, the band wrote and subsequently discarded at least an entire album's worth of songs. But at some point, explains Chase, "we turned a corner and hit on something that felt fresher to us." That something was a change of working method: they started by building off of rhythms and textures rather than writing primarily on acoustic guitar, which had been Ivy's traditional approach. Chase and Schlesinger, who each began life as keyboard players, allowed themselves to focus less on being a "guitar" band and more on creating compelling, exciting tracks through any means necessary. The first breakthrough was "Distant Lights", which was to become the leadoff track on All Hours. A slow-building, shifting soundscape with a relentless, hypnotic beat, the song manages to sound simultaneously like classic Ivy and not quite like anything they've ever done before....full text |
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