No, not the Dominique Durand/Andy Chase/Adam Schlesinger band. This Ivy is British, and they just barely predate the more well-known Franco-American trio, releasing two singles in the waning days of the Sarah label and, as far as I know, nothing else. The fact that the two bands are completely unrelated hasn't stopped a lot of people who you'd think would have known better from confusing them. (Similarly, some unscrupulous dealers have been known to hawk this single on eBay with "Fountains of Wayne" as a keyword phrase.)

But enough about what they aren't. What they were was perhaps the closest that Sarah ever came to a band that could possibly have made it in the American alternative pop scene of the early '90s. "Wish You Would" is a hazy, distorted and sludgy record, with the requisite My Bloody Valentine influence sharing space with a singer who sounds a lot like that girl from the Cranberries (complete with a trill that would likely have gotten really annoying over the course of a full album) and a lead guitarist who has apparently worn out all of his Smashing Pumpkins records. I suspect there are a lot of diehard Sarah Records fans who kind of hate this song, but while it sounds rather dated in a way that most of the Sarah 45s definitely do not, there's something kind of charming about this record.

-Stewart Mason