Happy 25th Anniversary to Ivy’s second studio album Apartment Life, originally released October 6, 1997.
[Read our interview with Ivy’s Andy Chase & Dominique Durand here.]
It seems like forever ago, but also still so strikingly vivid in my still thankfully lucid memory. It was the summer of 1997. And it was arguably the most formative period in my life thus far, with respect to shaping my musical palette as a listener.
Throughout my teenage years, including my first few years attending UCLA, I was stubbornly—and rather myopically—devoted to hip-hop and R&B music, with little to no appetite for anything else. But now with the benefit of hindsight and a helluva lot more life experience, I recognize, in retrospect, that my rigid obsession with these two varieties of popular music was stifling.
The transition from high school to college served as a catalyst, to some extent, for opening my mind to new sounds and styles, as I’ve written about before. But it was my experience interning for the publicity team at Virgin Records America in Beverly Hills during the summer of 1997—between my sophomore and junior years at UCLA—that proved to be the musical awakening I hadn’t known I’d needed.
The year prior to interning with Virgin, I had rather serendipitously (and fortuitously) stumbled upon the opportunity to manage the hip-hop concert series on campus. And it was this extracurricular endeavor—coupled with my lifelong passion for music—that planted the seed in my mind of exploring a potential career in the music business, as I relinquished my original delusions of going to law school. Hence, the internship with Virgin, my first formal foray into the recording industry and an invaluable education in the fundamental structure and operations of a major record company.
That summer, I had the pleasure of doing my (very) small part in supporting Virgin’s notable album releases across their eclectic roster of artists, which included The Verve’s Urban Hymns, Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope, Blur’s Blur, the Spice Girls’ Spiceworld, Daft Punk’s Homework, Ben Harper’s The Will to Live, Sneaker Pimps’ Becoming X, and the Rolling Stones’ Bridges to Babylon, among many others. In addition to being surrounded by the Virgin-commissioned records, there were always stacks of advance-copy CDs from all of the other record labels laying around the office, the product of record swaps whereby label folks would exchange what essentially amounted to CD care packages with their counterparts at other companies.
Listen to the Album:
One afternoon on the job, I was busy fulfilling one of my designated intern tasks—most likely organizing the day’s press clippings—and the sweetest melody with shuffling percussion began to emanate from my supervisor Holly’s desk, a few yards away. Not to mention the loveliest voice with a subtle yet discernible French accent, singing, “She's reformed / Just like the neighbor's girl / She's coming home / Into her wonder-world / She's moving fast / She's a superstar / She's getting high / She covers up her scars,” before a rush of trashing guitars ushered in the chorus, the mysterious vocalist proclaiming, “It’s the best thing…she’s ever had.”
“What. Is. This. Beautiful. Record?” I immediately asked Holly, dying to know who in the world had created this sublime sound. She turned from her computer, picked up the CD adorned with the “For Promotional Use Only” stamp, and answered, “Ivy? A band called Ivy. They’re on Atlantic. Apartment Life. Yeah, it does sound good, doesn’t it?”
She and I listened to the entirety of the album, and I was transfixed. Knowing that the official release of Apartment Life wouldn’t surface for another six weeks or so, I set about hunting down the two records that preceded it—the band’s Lately EP (1994) and their debut full-length Realistic (1995). I was hooked. My love for Ivy’s music was immediate and my affection for their songs would become unconditional over the ensuing years, as I never ever thought twice about buying each successive album they delivered and snatching up tickets to see their live shows in both LA and New York City.
Indeed, for all of the wonderful music that Ivy have made to date, the cornerstone for me has been—and will likely forever be—the brilliant Apartment Life. It remains a grand testament to the shared ambition and musical symbiosis cultivated by bandmates Andy Chase, Dominique Durand and Adam Schlesinger, the acclaimed songwriter and Fountains of Wayne co-founder who passed away from COVID-19 related complications on April 1, 2020 at the age of 52.
There’s so much to admire about Apartment Life, comprised of twelve songs that embody Ivy’s meticulous dedication to their songcraft, as Chase and Durand generously discussed at length during my recent conversation with the husband-wife duo. Where to begin? Chase and Schlesinger’s expert, exquisite production work. Durand’s cool yet captivating vocals, all perfectly calibrated with the melody-rich arrangements and subtle yet intentional sonic flourishes embedded throughout the record. The thoughtful song sequencing that illuminates the variations in mood, tempo and tone, as the listener traverses the album from song to song. The thematic and lyrical substance of the album, evocative of lives lived in the greatest city on earth.
But in the simplest and truest of terms, with no over-analysis really needed at all, Apartment Life is a beautiful album.
With the praises of the album-opening lead single “The Best Thing” already sung earlier in this piece, distinguishing other highlights is an exercise in futility for this highlight-rich affair, considering that each of Apartment Life’s remaining eleven songs can rightfully be considered standouts. As for my personal favorites, I tend to gravitate to the four songs that form the album’s final third. The escapist “Get Out of the City” rides shimmering guitar riffs and a steady bassline as Durand daydreams about fleeing the demands of urban living, singing, “Roll the windows down / Take a look around / Everything is melting in the sun / Nothing's getting done.”
“Get Out of the City” then segues into the plaintive “These Are the Things About You,” an intimate, endearing ballad about knowing the interior depths of one’s partner, as contrasted with the limited perceptions that others have from the outside looking in. The album concludes with the dual gems—the gorgeously constructed “Quick, Painless and Easy” bolstered by its descending bass and atmospheric guitar play, and the keyboard-driven, nostalgic ode “Back in Our Town” replete with James Iha’s supporting vocals.
While Apartment Life is largely a guitar-dominated affair, horns make an indelible impression on two tracks found in the album’s first half. Chris Botti’s sterling trumpet invigorates the effervescent ode to self-empowerment “This Is the Day”—the album’s third official single—and the solemn “Baker,” an empathetic examination of depression, which finds Durand painting a sobering portrait of disenchantment (“He locks all the doors / Pulls down the shades / He's not the same since he went away / He can't figure out what to do with his days / He's wasted his time / Now he's wasting away”).
Along with the aforementioned “The Best Thing” and “This Is the Day,” Apartment Life’s four official singles include the wistful meditation about looking for love of “I’ve Got a Feeling” and the multi-layered dirge “You Don’t Know Anything.” Elsewhere, the album’s highlights are rounded out by the subdued exploration of a despondent lover in “Never Do That Again,” the buoyant, Saint Etienne-reminiscent blast of pure pop “I Get the Message,” and the midtempo “Ba Ba Ba,” a vignette of a lovers quarrel and the resignation that invariably follows such conflict.
Few albums have soundtracked my adulthood—and my own “apartment life” in New York City for the past 20-plus years—as poignantly and as prominently as Ivy’s Apartment Life. Even twenty-five years on, it’s an album that I eagerly return to often and I know that these twelve songs will never be far from my reach for the rest of my life.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing this remarkable record, it’s high time that you indulge yourself in its many charms. And then treat yourself further by exploring the full breadth of Ivy’s oeuvre, beginning with their debut Realistic and then on to Long Distance (2000), Guestroom (2002), In the Clear (2005) and finally, All Hours (2011).
LISTEN: