Single Review: Heartless

Ivy are easily one of the more sonically ambitious bands that you can hear from Aotearoa New Zealand currently. Heartless is their latest work following on from last year’s EP For The Sake of It, where it would not sound at all out of place.

In Heartless the band, typically, cast their net of musical influences far and wide and using the younger Mr Buckley as starting point the song begins by utilising a ‘Grace’ era feel and instrumentation. By halfway through, however, Heartless leaves this behind as the band very ,much picks up the metaphorical ball and runs with it, building the song to an impressive finale. As in their previous work, Ivy characterise their delivery with a vocal and instrumental capacity far beyond their apparent years, as well as intelligent instrumentation and arrangement. Heartless is strong, cohesive work.

On the lyrical front, Ivy don’t take any sort of ‘common denominator’ route, using biblical characters to explore contemporary ideas of abusive relationship situations. Listeners familiar with their work would expect no less, and at the risk of labouring the point it’s impressive to see this kind of ambition in lyrical approach.

Heartless feels like the logical follow on from ‘Mornings Wake’, the final and most cohesive track from For The Sake of It, and it’s no less compelling and rewarding for the listener.

Fine work indeed.