Apartment Life [Original recording reissued]

Ivy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Unfiltered
• ASIN: B0000AYLJ3
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,700 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So pop music can be mature, realistic, and complex?!, June 14, 2004

By 

"rainweirdo" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apartment Life (Audio CD)

Ivy isn't my usual taste in music, but I bought one of their albums based on the strength of "Worry About You" from Long Distance after hearing it on Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital (on a side note: hated that show at first, but after watching for a while I think it was turning into something unique and interesting, too bad it didn't get a chance). Ivy's music is, largely, chilled out adult contemporary, pretty poppy, and usually about relationships, exactly the kind of stuff I usually find to be way too cheesy and juvenile, but this New York trio is anything but that, and I've come to love them. They create such mellow, such cool sounds overlaid by Durand's breathy French accented vocals that are somehow powerful and very subtle and understated at the same time. Most importantly, at their best they tap into REAL emotions with a direct but languid ease that I have never really encountered before in pop. While listening to Ivy, it just feels like they're talking about my life without ever referring to anything specific, just bringing up emotions and vibes. Apartment Life is their best album, a transistory point between the more up-tempo, acoustic indie-rock of Realistic and the layered, ultra mellow, endlessly relaxing sounds of Long Distance. They cut lose a couple times with fast paced (but still chilled out) quiet-rockers like The Best Thing and You Don't Know Anything, then tap into the more synthetic poppish styles that rule Long Distance with the likes of Quick, Painless And Easy and Ba Ba Ba and with a very unusual frequency they manage to tap into an emotional vibe that is just perfect, without drawing attention to itself. Their best songs are sublime, in the truest snese of the word. On Apartment Life, the best example of this is the final song, Back In Our Town (their best song to date, in my opinion), an absolutely gorgeous and haunting ballad. It's not the type of song that makes you sit up and listen and go "Whoah, wow!," instead it's the kind of song that makes you sit back and just take it in, and when it's fading you realize what a unique experience is leaving you (not only the song, but in this case, since it is the last song, the entire album).

Check Ivy out. Like I said, they're not really my type of music. Normaly I go for Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and Mars Volta, but I love them anyway because at their best they make me feel sad, happy, at peace, comforted and lonely all at the same time, without ever forcing or seeming to try to make me feel anything at all. The first few times I listened to them I thought they were a little too sunny and light (and I still find a very small number of their songs to be, but those are by far the minority), but that's just the surface. Ivy is a mature, complex group that puts out mature, complex music that is easily accessible because it seems so simple. They have a depth that few do.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pleasing sounds found here, December 21, 2004

By 

eradano - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apartment Life (Audio CD)

What saddens me about being a fan of this type of pop music is that I live in the US and I'll never be able to hear any of my favorite bands on the radio. In fact the only time I've heard Ivy outside of my place and my car was while I was waiting for my girlfriend who was shopping at some boutique, (this did make me question my choice of music, but only for a fleeting second). In Apartment life, the sweet sound of Dominique's voice flows seamlessly over the wonderfully created pop songs with an air of indifference. Ivy ranks up there with Saint Etienne, and Belle and Sebastian as my favorite pop groups, and this CD is a good one to get if you're at all interested in their wonderful sound. Maybe one day the relentless teen pop that comes streaming towards me from the tv and the radio will one day ebb in a moment of bliss as people realize that there are other facets of pop music out there. Until then, I'll just bide my time and listen to my Ivy at home and in the car; and when it's played as I patiently wait in the boutiques, I'll smile and tap my shoe.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Female-fronted pop at its best, August 3, 2004

By 

AUTOHYPNOSIS (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apartment Life (Audio CD)

I consider this album one of the quintessential pop albums featuring a female lead singer. "Apartment Life" has everything you could want in such an album: Great songwriting, featuring incredibly catchy melodies; concise arrangements; flawless production that manages not to feel overproduced or mechanical; and, to top it all off, the unique, beautiful vocal stylings of Dominique Durand.