“Remind Me I’m Alive” by Ivoryline, Sunday, April 30, 2023

 

Like Search the City, Ivoryline was one of Tooth & Nail Records potential “next Anberlin” projects. Ivoryline was one of the many “two-album wonders” of the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, releasing their debut There Came a Lion in 2008 and Vessels in 2010. Last year, the Labeled podcast featured an interview with Ivoryline’s lead singer Jeremy Gray, breaking down the band’s successes and untimely demise. Ivoryline was a casualty to the dying record-selling industry and never saw the success of some of their scene- and tour-mates, but their story is worth checking out.

THIS SEATLE LIFE HAS CHANGED ME FROM THE INSIDE. In 2003, Dead End Driveway formed in Tyler, Texas, and changed their name to Ivoryline in 2005. The next year they were scouted by Tooth & Nail Records after playing on the Vans Warped Tour. After signing to the label in 2007, the band released There Came a Lion in February of 2008. The album sold well, charting at number 25 on Billboard’s Christian Albums and number 15 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart. Three of the albums singles went to number 1 on Christian Rock radio, and it seemed that Ivoryline was the next big Christian Rock band. Although the band toured with both Christian and secular bands from Family Force 5 and Emery to Silverstein and Dance Gavin Dance, their lyrics pigeonholed the band as an explicitly Christian group. There Came a Lion opened with the track “Days End,” a song about awaiting the Second Coming. “All You Ever Hear” seems to echo the biblical story of Mary Magdalene, while with 2023 ears sounds patriarchal, condescending, and shaming of the fallen woman in the song. “Hearts and Minds” is a Christian chess game between knowledge and feelings. 

HOW BEAUTIFUL YOU CAN BE. The lyrics to “Remind Me I’m Alive” feel a little awkward without the music as far as the word choice and the cadence if you were to read them aloud. The song is a worship song, talking vaguely about the speaker’s relationship with God and magnifying how much better God is than the speaker. The greatest strength of the song is its soaring melody. Like many of the tracks on  There Came a Lion, singer Jeremy Gray pushes his vocal range to falsetto, which was a very common practice in the ‘00s. But Ivoryline’s drums and bass keep the rhythm grooving. And the guitars help the melody to soar. There is something fundamentally ‘80s, perhaps like Journey, about Ivoryline’s first record that they were unable to capture on their sophomore record, Vessels. While Jeremy Gray didn’t become the next Steve Perry, there was potential in the the sincerity of Ivoryline’s lyrics, Gray’s delivery, and the overall musicality of Ivoryline. It’s good music like this that reminds us how good it is to be alive and listening to music. 





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