IVY - In The Clear (2005)

IN THE CLEAR features guest appearances by guitarist James Iha and Adam Schlesinger's, band mate Jody Porter, Brazilian string arranger Ze' Luis and former Girsl Against Boys front man Scott McLoud. First single is "Thinking About you."


The growing, if belated, popularity of Ivy is a happy event. Over the course of a half-dozen releases, the band has married slightly trippy atmospherics to immaculate popcraft and the melancholy vocals of Paris-born Dominique Durand. In the Clear, their fifth album, finds the guitars occasionally louder (they roil and distort on the kiss-off "Clear My Head") but the mood essentially the same. Its a romantic, cautiously hopeful one, exemplified by the discs closing "Feel So Free." Special and secretive--"Tess Dont Tell" repeatedly insists "Its just for you, its not for anybody else"--In the Clear thrives on trademark Ivy contradictions and, now and then, an unexpected noise in the corners of the sound. --Rickey Wright