{"id":27815,"date":"2013-07-15T13:45:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T13:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-ivy-league-transparency\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:18:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:18:20","slug":"album-review-ivy-league-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-ivy-league-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Ivy League &#8211; Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" align=\"left\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tumblr_inline_mpl2h7JDmx1qz4rgp.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For a relatively unknown band, <\/span><span><strong>Ivy League<\/strong> <\/span><span>hold a lot of promise. After their last EP was relatively well received stateside, <\/span><strong><span>Ivy League<\/span><\/strong><span> chose Paul Miner (Thrice, NFG producer) to help produce their full length. With their debut album <\/span><em>\u2018Transparency\u2019<\/em><span> about to be released in the UK, the Texan pop-punkers are ready to stake claim amongst the over-saturated pop-punk scene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While officially described as pop-punk, <em>\u2018Transparency\u2019<\/em> mixes styles, often drifting into post-hardcore territory. <strong>Ivy League\u2019s<\/strong> sound is essentially Title Fight meets Saves the Day\u2019s <em>\u2018Under the Boards\u2019<\/em>, which is by no means a bad thing. Despite these comparisons, it would be wrong to assume <span><strong>Ivy League<\/strong><\/span> are a simple carbon copy of better bands, as <em>\u2018Transparency\u2019<\/em> holds merits all of its own.<!-- more --><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>With catchy riffs and tight melodies, <em>\u2018Transparency\u2019<\/em> is sharply produced yet still retains a grungy vibe. Opener <em>\u2018Canopy\u2019<\/em> sets the tone of the album off the bat, declaring <em>\u201cI held onto hope, I had to learn to let it go, this black cloud\u2019s my canopy\u201d<\/em>. Helplessness and inadequacy are recurring themes in this album, and some of their lyrics hit Basement-style levels of depressing. Fixing mistakes, broken relationships and emotional crisis are all explored frequently.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Transparency\u2019<\/em> features some above-par tracks, <em>\u2018Losing Sleep\u2019<\/em> boasts a killing opening riff and screaming vocals, while <em>\u2018All My Skeletons\u2019<\/em> features a guest spot from Jason Butler of letlive. which gives this penultimate track an extra edge. Stand out track <em>\u2018Void\u2019<\/em> draws parallels with Title Fight\u2019s<em> \u2018The Last Thing You Forget\u2019<\/em> in parts. There\u2019s no doubt <span><strong>Ivy League<\/strong><\/span> are talented, though sadly this album doesn\u2019t quite meet the high expectations expected of them.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"h.l5wdlf85ijrp\" name=\"h.l5wdlf85ijrp\"><\/a>The main drawback of this album is that it sounds a bit samey. All of the songs are fairly similar; both in terms of style and content, so that even after repeat listens it\u2019s still hard to differentiate between them. Eventually the depressing lyrics begin to sound like a one-man pity party and it grows tiresome.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Transparency\u2019 <\/em>holds a lot of promise, but it just lacks the wow factor to separate <strong>Ivy League <\/strong>from the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Transparency\u2019<\/em><span> <\/span><span>by<\/span><strong> Ivy League<\/strong><span> is out <\/span><span>August 5<\/span><span>th<\/span><span> via<\/span><span> <\/span><span><strong>Fist in the Air Records<\/strong>.<\/span><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ivy League<\/strong><span> <\/span><span>links:<\/span><span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ivyleaguetx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<\/span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/ivyleaguetx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"http:\/\/ivyleaguetx.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Words by Jay Sullivan.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a relatively unknown band, Ivy League hold a lot of promise. After their last EP was relatively well received stateside, Ivy League chose Paul Miner (Thrice, NFG producer) to help produce their full length. With their debut album \u2018Transparency\u2019 about to be released in the UK, the Texan pop-punkers are ready to stake claim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,7747,12121,150,12248],"class_list":["post-27815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-fist-in-the-air-records","tag-ivy-league","tag-music","tag-transparency"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Album Review: Ivy League - Transparency - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a relatively unknown band, Ivy League hold a lot of promise. 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