Emotionalpunk.com
Media Review
Music Quality: 8.5
Production: 8.0
Originality: 7.5
Tracklisting
2. Coast Of Maine
3. There She Goes
4. A Song To Sing
5. Love Finds Love
6. Falling Feathers
Ivory’s music really captures what emotional music is and should be; music powerful enough that it creates an emotion within you. The music creates a sense of urgency, like the last moments of a long goodbye, the tension in those few minutes, the anticipation, is captured perfectly in music. Such is Ivory. The first five songs on the EP feature echoing guitars, along with a pulsing beat and piano. The last song serves as a perfect conclusion, leaving behind the echoing guitars and the sense of anticipation that marked the first five.
“Don’t Go” begins the record off as a perfect example of the sound and style that permeates the first five songs; bittersweet, simple notes and instrumentation in the background over the soft and sweet yet urgent vocals. The style continues, but transitions well into “Coast of Maine”, my personal favorite song, with an amazing bridge, and as usual, the chorus is repeated over the echoing guitars, as the intensity builds and the chorus brings you into the emotional lyrics. The next song, “There She Goes”, uses an amazing buildup after the bridge to come into the urgent chorus. In “Song to Sing”, the vocals sound more strained that emotion-laden, and by this point in the EP, the repetition may begin to get, well, repetitious. But “Love Finds Love” continues the same style, this time a little more interestingly; guitars driving and pulsing and with heavier cymbals. The final song, “Falling Feathers”, really serves as a conclusion, and fits perfectly. The voice and the guitars leaving the echoing, drawn out approach, and although there is still a build up in the last minute, the song is a great ending to the EP.
Through the first five songs, Ivory uses repetitive melodies and instrumentation lines, rhythms, patterns, and similar song structures, but effectively; those draw you slowly into the emotion and into that chorus, as intensity builds through the last minute or so. By the end of “Coast of Maine”, I am positive that he should have stayed back there with her on the Coast of Maine. The album can seem to blur together, as each of the first five songs have similar song structures and instrumentation, but each song transitions well from one to the other, and have enough distinction that each song remains memorable. Ivory has created a beautiful sound, sometimes sparse, sometimes repetitive, and over a full-length, expect them to shine.