Beloved New York-reared indie trio Ivy were inactive for the better part of eight years before group member Adam Schlesinger died of COVID-19 during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020. Since then, surviving husband-and-wife duo Dominque Durand and Andy Chase have paid tribute to Schlesinger in a moving video retrospective and overseen several back catalog reissues, but there was no new Ivy album on the horizon — until now.
Durand, Chase and longtime multi-instrumentalist Bruce Driscoll have combed through their demo archives to surface the previously unreleased material on Traces of You, which will emerge Sept. 5 through Bar/None Records. Each of the 10 tracks offers contributions from Schlesinger, including lead single “Say You Will,” which was built from a 2009 demo where he played bass and keyboard. R.E.M./Atoms for Peace drummer Joey Waronker plays on the finished version.
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With occasional flashes of mainstream success but enduring fan appeal, Ivy are perhaps best known for their 1997 sophomore album Apartment Life, from which “This Is the Day” popped up in the classic ’90s comedy There’s Something About Mary and the vibrant, moody “The Best Thing” garnered modern rock airplay. The trio, who formed in 1994 but slowed down in the 2000s while Schlesinger devoted more time to Fountains of Wayne, last released an album in 2011 with After Hours.
“The songs here were all unused and abandoned ideas from the various albums and film scores we worked on,” the band members tell SPIN of the Traces of You material. “We’d never released any parts of them.” The resulting music is amongst the most diverse Ivy have ever released, from the bass- and keyboard-driven “Fragile People” and the wistful, undulating title track to “The Great Unknown,” which has an almost Garbage-y, electro feel and the tender, acoustic guitar-led “Hate That It’s True.”
Band members say album opener “The Midnight Hour” was the most complete of the fragments, as “the first verse and chorus were sung back when they were originally demoed. Adam’s bass was there and Andy had played all the guitar and keys. The second verse, the bridge and the ‘feel the rush’ vocal hook were all new additions when we got together with Bruce. What’s amazing is that Dominique’s vocals between verse one and two are seamless, as if no time had passed.” Schlesinger’s Fountains of Wayne cohorts Brian Young (drums) and Jody Porter (guitar) later added parts to the recording.
Ivy found themselves slipping back into some old work habits during the process, but thankfully, with ear-pleasing results. “Dominique disliked the existing idea for ‘Heartbreak,’ which was Andy on guitar and keys and Adam on bass with the main part of the song you hear at the introduction,” they say. “By the time we added the horn parts, the chorus chords and found depressing lyrics to offset the happy sound of the song, she came around.”
Asked what fans will enjoy most about hearing Schlesinger’s work on Traces of You, Ivy’s members answer, “on one song, you’ll hear Adam on bass, the next on acoustic, the next on keys, the next he supplied a part of the melody with mumbled lyrics (which we deciphered and completed). His contributions were always gems and we never had to make them work with what we were doing. They were always essential to the idea, or we wouldn’t work on the track.”
Here is the track list for Traces of You:
The Midnight Hour
Fragile People
Mystery Girl
Traces of You
The Great Unknown
Say You Will
Heartbreak
Lose It All
Wasting Time
Hate That It’s True
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