Ivy Gold – Broken Silence
Release Date: 26th May 2023
Label: Golden Ivy Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Blues, Rock, Funk, Gospel
FFO: Samantha Fish, Kira Mac, Grainne Duffy, Larkin Poe.
Review By: Mark Waight
Broken Silence by Ivy Gold is a superb contemporary rock album with Blues, funk and gospel influences that is as smooth as silk and just so easy on the ears that everyone will enjoy something about it. Broken Silence is perfect lazy day music for those long hot days of summer, so put your feet up with a beverage of your choice and enjoy the ride.
Ivy Gold are a truly international band with frontwoman Manuo hailing from Mozart’s home city of Salzburg in Austria, guitarist Sebastian Eder from Munich in Germany, keyboard player Anders Olinder from Bristol UK, bass player Kevin Moore and drummer Tal Bergman are both citizens of the USA coming from New York and the West Coast respectively.
Title track, Broken Silence opens with some deftly cool blues guitar playing before we are introduced to Manou’s beautifully husky vocals, the song just drifts along sweetly alternating between the pair with a lovely keyboard melody adding to this super slick composition.
The very funky No Ordinary Woman is so cool it should really be wearing sunglasses. If this song doesn’t lift your spirits and get your feet moving, then nothing will! Stylish bass work, brass, and soulful keys make this an absolute must-listen!
Got What I Need is a super sharp, cold as ice tune with a fabulous gospel feel to it that will leave you totally chilled out. This is the stuff that lazy days were made for! House of Cards reminded me very much of the 80s Grace Jones style with its funky vibe and groovy beat. This will be a favourite with people who like something they can groove, move or sway to!
I Am That I Am brings things down once again with a dreamy journey that is accompanied by tear inducing emotional vocals and a guitar that is practically crying out in woe. Without doubt my favourite song on Broken Silence.
Six Times Gone is a good old-fashioned pure blues song with authentic riff, mellow keyboards, rock vocals and smoking red-hot guitar solo. What’s not to enjoy!
Fragile and emotional song Sacred Heart has a gospel thread running through its core that just blends perfectly with the bluesy guitar playing and heart-breaking vocals. It’s an outstanding song with its truly classic cocktail of genres and incredible musicianship.
A train rolling along the tracks cleverly opens Drifting, a deeper bass, heavy on the drums with a sprinkling of warmly overdriven guitars and dark vocals to accompany this nod to the good old days of hard rock.
Broken Wings of Hope is a slightly harder and faster tune with a much more retro feel to it. We are also treated to some more of the gospel style choral influence and a spell binding finger numbing guitar solo to boot!
Old Love (live bonus track) gives you a brief experience of what an Ivy Gold gig would sound like and should seriously whet your appetite to see them live. The sound is rich with depth in spades and Manou’s voice is totally divine!
Last up, Silence is an 11-second-long final offering that does indeed Break the Silence and close the album off nicely.
I thoroughly enjoyed my venture through the Blues Rock sound of Ivy Gold and am confident that you too will all love Broken Silence as much as I did. Broken Silence is for me the type of music to listen too on warm summer evenings, or whilst lying on the beach, or having a picnic/BBQ or maybe just crashed out on the sofa. Whichever method you choose it will certainly enhance your listening pleasure of some musical gold, in this case Ivy Gold!
(4 / 5)
