Apartment Life
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
Apartment Life is the second studio album by American indie pop band Ivy, released in 1997 on Atlantic Records. It was re-released later the same year by Sony's 550 Music imprint, with remixed versions of several songs.
Apartment Life received predominantly positive reviews upon release, and is considered Ivy's signature album by several modern musical critics, who called it "underrated" and "under-appreciated".[1][2]
Four singles were released from the album: "I've Got a Feeling", "The Best Thing", "This Is the Day", and "You Don't Know Anything". Lead single "I've Got a Feeling" was critically successful, but commercially unsuccessful. However, third single "This is the Day" received significant attention after appearing in the popular film There's Something About Mary. To promote the album, Ivy embarked on a small promotional tour, but were dropped from Atlantic at the beginning of the tour.
Conception
Background
The initial production for Apartment Life started shortly after the release of their debut album, Realistic.[2] The process was overly long, according to Ivy, who mentioned that they had difficulty finding time to work on the album:
"It's the same story every band has to grapple with, which is trying to fit onto the insane release schedule of a major label. It's funny because you can talk yourself out of all 12 months. You can't do it in July because school is out and you'll miss college. Everybody is releasing records in September, you've got the September crunch. October is too close to November, which starts the Christmas stuff. Before you know it, you're back to June and July again. That's what we went through. They just picked some date which I think was seven months after we turned in the record."[3]
Album cover
The cover of the original edition of the album depicted lead singer Dominique Durand, shown looking into the mirror of a compact. The reissued 550 Music edition of Apartment Life moved the original front sleeve art of Durand to the inside. The new front cover art, a digitally altered version of a photo that originally appeared on the inner booklet, consisted of Durand sitting alone at a small breakfast table.
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| The A.V. Club | Favorable[5] |
| Rolling Stone |  [6] |
| Sputnikmusic | [7] |
Upon release, Apartment Life received general acclaim from critics. Sputnikmusic declared the album a "criminally underrated indie pop gem" and wrote that "almost all the tracks are gems in their own right".[7] Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club called the album "slickly pretty and mannered" and praised "The Best Thing".[5] Rolling Stone claimed that "[with] deftly garnishing top-shelf songs with horns and keyboards, on Apartment Life, Ivy put the fizz in cocktail culture".[6] MTV News said that the album "highlight[s] Chase and Schlesinger's impressive studio skills", further adding that "their star power [is] unstoppable, but gracefully so".[8]
Singles
Four singles were released from Apartment Life, although only two were planned.
"I've Got a Feeling" was released as the album's lead single on October 7, 1997 in the United States. It was re-released in Australia in 1998.[9]
"The Best Thing" was issued as a promotional single in the United States, while being released as a jukebox single in Italy.[10]
"This Is the Day" was released in Austria as the album's third single on April 29, 1999, accompanied by two B-side tracks, "Sleeping Late" and "Sweet Mary".[11] Although released as a promotional single in 1998, the song was reissued when it appeared on the soundtrack for the popular film There's Something About Mary.[12]
Fourth and final single "You Don't Know Anything" was also released on April 29, 1999, in Europe, and featured the same B-sides as "This Is the Day".[11]
Promotion
In July 1997, Ivy embarked on a small seven-week tour for Apartment Life throughout the United States alongside the Space Monkeys. Ivy recalled the experience in an interview with Jonathan Cohen from Billboard magazine:
"They [Sony] gave us the money to tour, and we're actually a pretty expensive band to send on tour. We continued to tour, which was a seven-week tour with the Space Monkeys. It was awful. But we did the tour. In the middle of that, our management company found us a deal with Sony/550, after we got dropped."[2]
After being dropped from both Atlantic and Sony, Ivy signed to independent record label Nettwerk.[13]
Track listing
All songs written by Ivy, except "You Don't Know Anything" which features additional lyrics by Chris Collingwood, and "Back in Our Town" with features additional lyrics by James Iha.
| No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Best Thing" | 3:43 | |
| 2. | "I've Got a Feeling" |
| 3:04 |
| 3. | "This Is the Day" |
| 3:33 |
| 4. | "Never Do That Again" |
| 3:36 |
| 5. | "I Get the Message" |
| 3:14 |
| 6. | "Baker" |
| 4:03 |
| 7. | "You Don't Know Anything" |
| 3:44 |
| 8. | "Ba Ba Ba" |
| 3:22 |
| 9. | "Get Out of the City" |
| 3:09 |
| 10. | "These Are the Things About You" |
| 3:02 |
| 11. | "Quick, Painless and Easy" |
| 4:13 |
| 12. | "Back in Our Town" |
| 4:44 |
| Total length: | 44:30 | ||
| No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Sleeping Late" |
| 2:30 |
| 14. | "Sweet Mary" |
| 3:14 |
| Total length: | 50:14 | ||
Credits and personnel
- Management
- Recorded at The Place, New York City; Duotone Studios, New York City; and Compositions, New York City
- Personnel
|
|
Credits and personnel adapted from Apartment Life liner notes[15] and Andy Chase's discography.[16]
Release history
| Region | Date | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | October 6, 1997 | Atlantic | [17] |
| Germany | |||
| United States | |||
| Germany | April 29, 1999 | 550 Music | |
| Japan | Epic | ||
| United States | 2003 | Unfiltered |
References
- ^ Kovey, Fred. "Ivy - Long Distance". PopMatters. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b c Cohen, Jonathan (July 11, 2001). "No 'Distance' Too Far". Nude As The News. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Cohen, Jonathan (July 7, 2001). "Despite Calamities, Nettwerk's Ivy Gets Lift From Far Easy". Retrieved December 7, 2015.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Rabid, Jack. Apartment Life at AllMusic
- ^ a b Thompson, Stephen. "Ivy: Apartment Life". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Robbins, Ira (October 15, 1997). "Ivy - Apartment Life Album Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help); Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ a b EndSerenading. "Ivy - Apartment Life Review Summary". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
- ^ "About Ivy". MTV News. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Ivy - I've Got A Feeling". Discogs. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
- ^ Rabid, Jack. "Apartment Life Review". AllMusic. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
- ^ a b "ivy - Discography". thebandivy.com. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
- ^ "There's Something about Mary Soundtrack". Soundtrackinfo.com. July 14, 1998. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
- ^ "Ivy". Nettwerk. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
- ^ "Ivy - Apartment Life". Discogs. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
- ^ Apartment Life (liner notes). Ivy (band). Atlantic Records. 1997.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Chase, Andy. "Discography". andychase.com. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
- ^ "Ivy - Apartment Life". Discogs. Retrieved December 7, 2015.