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Thriving Ivory, a five-piece band from the Bay Area, challenge one of the 10 Commandments of Rock on their self-titled debut: Thou shall not prefer pianos to guitars. But on Thriving Ivory, the group latch onto one soaring mid-tempo rocker after another, as their lead singer Clayton Stroope serenades his eternally broken heart over keyboards, bolstered by guitars and strings. While they share some similarities with the Coldplay modern-rock crowd, the band pull off the tricky proposition of being sensitive without slipping into utter wimpiness.


Songs About Love Gone Wrong

Listening to Thriving Ivory, the most noticeable influence on the quintet seems to be the majestic ballads of ‘70s arena-rock acts like Aerosmith. Imagine an entire album’s sound built around the epic prettiness of Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion anthems like “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry” and you’ll get an idea of what Thriving Ivory have achieved.

Not surprisingly, much of the material on Thriving Ivory has to do with love – often, Stroope is either pining for a girl who dumped him or dealing with an unhappy relationship about ready to go south. The album’s opener, “Runaway,” sets the tone. Borrowing the searching tone of U2’s grand “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “Runaway” finds Stroope counting stars and journaling his thoughts, hoping to find contentment after a series of disappointments. Scott Jason’s hopeful keyboards and Drew Cribley’s forceful guitars underscore the singer’s determination to find a fresh start, and the song is just one of many on Thriving Ivory which tries to counteract sadness with swelling choruses.

Elegant Sorrow

The band effectively make beautiful music crammed full of melancholy. Thriving Ivory evokes that wobbly post-breakup period when you’re subsisting on a steady diet of depression while drunk on your own tears. The good thing about Stroope’s sorrow is that it doesn’t turn him into a whiner or a jerk, something that can definitely be a problem when a frontman sings a lot about his personal pain. On “Twilight,” the end of a love affair prompts a gorgeous song that bursts with the sort of well-calibrated melodramatic fervor usually reserved for the climatic final scenes of CW teen dramas. In your head, you can practically see the estranged couple running into each other’s arms as rain falls down.

Earnest Singer Milks the Agony

As a singer, Stroope doesn’t go for the sort of goth-theatrics that made bands like the Cure the heroes of introverted teens everywhere. But he also lacks the fierce command of hard-rock frontmen like Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler or GNR’s Axl Rose. Instead, he possesses an earnest delivery with an ability to hit high notes that squeeze every last drop of agony from his lyrics. And on tracks like “Secret Life,” with its string section reminiscent of “November Rain,” he and his band make powerful music perfectly suited for large crowds of swaying young people lofting their cigarette lighters and illuminated cell phones heavenward. Thriving Ivory is full of songs about lonely people, but it seems to be a safe bet that these tunes will speak to a lot of folks who know just where Stroope is coming from.

Release date – June 24, 2008