Apartment Life

Background

The initial production for Apartment Life started shortly after the release of their debut album, Realistic. 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."

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

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". Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club called the album "slickly pretty and mannered" and praised "The Best Thing". Rolling Stone claimed that "[with] deftly garnishing top-shelf songs with horns and keyboards, on Apartment Life, Ivy put the fizz in cocktail culture". 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".

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.

"The Best Thing" was issued as a promotional single in the United States, while being released as a jukebox single in Italy.

"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". 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.

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".

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."

After being dropped from both Atlantic and Sony, Ivy signed to independent record label Nettwerk.

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.

Credits and personnel

Credits and personnel adapted from Apartment Life liner notes and Andy Chase's discography.