Ivy crafted one of the Nineties’ nice misplaced indie-pop gems with their 1997 cult traditional House Life. It’s one of many decade’s sharpest portraits of recent city romance: exquisitely moody grownup love songs, all purred by Paris-born chanteuse Dominique Durand in her groovy French accent. And now is a superb time to find it, with the the brand new twenty fifth Anniversary Version that includes two very good outtakes. The entire album has the vibe of the superb cowl photograph—a mod French lady placing on her make-up, possibly for a contact of glamour, however possibly simply to keep away from eye contact with a lover who’s getting on her nerves.
Ivy have been an all-star New York threesome: Durand, her guitarist (and associate) Andy Chase, and their pal, the late Adam Schlesinger, moonlighting from Fountains of Wayne. House Life is filled with bittersweet guitar chime, elegantly melancholic melodies, and younger romantics wounding one another’s hearts within the huge metropolis. The music has the Paris taste of Durand’s childhood idols Francoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg, but with a touch of Blondie’s downtown NYC humor. The plush sound transports you right into a Nineties indie movie the place you step into the espresso store the place your crush hangs out, however you would like you wore barely fancier sneakers.
“I’ve Acquired a Feeling” is the tune that ought to have been a success, hovering with Chase’s joyful guitar and Durand’s lovesick sighs. “By no means Do That Once more” is a beautiful torch ballad a few home stalemate, the place the couple can’t inform if that is simply a clumsy weekend or the tip of the street. In the event you’ve ever heard your self in Carole King’s “It’s Too Late” or Taylor Swift’s “Tolerate It,” you’ll be able to in all probability relate when Durand sings, “The cat’s on the carpet, the telephone doesn’t work / I hate while you’re quiet / It implies that you’re damage.” Give these two songs a mixed 6 minutes and 35 seconds of your time, and the melodies will hold swimming round your cranium for days.
House Life bought misplaced within the major-label shuffle, but it surely holds up as a quintessential mid-Nineties pop watershed within the mode of Every little thing However The Woman’s Amplified Coronary heart, Saint Etienne’s Good Humor, or Luna’s Penthouse. Like them, it’s glossy and polished on the floor, but hits near the center. (“It’s by no means too late / It’s solely too arduous”—now there’s a lyric that was forward of its time.) The brand new version has two outtakes that may have been welcome on the unique album, with the bossa-nova lilt of “Sleeping Late” and “Candy Mary.” Ivy are additionally releasing the stripped-down House Life demos on vinyl for File Retailer Day. (The vinyl drops April 21; it begins streaming July 21.)
Ivy stored on making cult faves like Lengthy Distance and Guestroom, the place they saluted their roots with covers of the Treatment, the Blow Monkeys, and Steely Dan. (You haven’t heard “Solely A Idiot Would Say That” till you’ve heard it in Durand’s deadpan voice.) Adam Schlesinger, in fact, went on to future glories with Fountain of Wayne’s Utopia Parkway and “Stacy’s Mother,” in addition to his songs for That Factor You Do, Music & Lyrics, and Loopy Ex-Girlfriend. Music lovers have been devastated in 2020 when Schlesinger tragically handed away from Covid in 2020; all of us wished many extra years of him. However House Life stands as a tribute to him and the brilliance of all concerned.
