Ivoryline Review by Katya Ungerman
There Came A Lion
Tooth & Nail Records

Ivoryline’s There Came A Lion is no doubt the product of a post-punk generation. It’s the perfect picture of post-punk pop: loud, catchy, and tailored to appeal to high schoolers. Taking a gander at their MySpace, they describe their music as: “[The answer is] lucid and elegant” and continue to go on to say, “The Ivoryline Highway was constructed from an authentic love of music and listening to their songs makes you wonder where the notes begin and the cells of their body end.” I’m not sure if this is a joke, but to be honest, as a musician I would say the only reason one should purchase There Came A Lion is for its lyrical value.
What they lack in actual musical skill, they make up for in some pretty good lyrics. It’s not atypical of their genre (post punk inspired – whether they’re aware of it or not – Christian pop rock), but it’s something a little less obnoxious than what’s expected when you turn your radio to a Christian rock station. Instead of flamboyant displays of faith, it’s more poetic: our complacency won’t last much longer / an urgency will sweep, sweep, sweep / or sleep, sleep, sleeping hearts / our complacency won’t last much longer / an urgency will sleep.
While all too reminiscent of what you would find on a Fall Out Boy album or better yet The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus or Saosin (whose sounds are almost identical), it’s a big step for the type of music they’re writing, and you wouldn’t know it was Christian rock unless you were listening carefully. This can be both an advantage and a  disadvantage, but over all, it opens up their audience to kids who wouldn’t be listening if they knew it was Christian rock.
Upon first listening to this album, I wasn’t impressed. I thought to myself, “Great, another bastardized version of some early post punk bands, another cheap knock-off of what Fall Out Boy was going to do.” Then I listened a little more carefully, and I was a little more accepting. This being said, it’s something that should stay on the radio. Don’t waste your money and buy this CD, because you probably own it. They’re not making much headway with an exception of their lyrics, which admittedly, are a notch above the rest, but Ivoryline’s There Came A Lion is too much so the picture of music today. IT’s nothing new – repetitive albeit catchy, clever but overdone, energetic but sort of obnoxious – in other words, every other new band out there.