Search - Ivy :: Realistic

Classic Ivy, well made

Travis M. Owens | Syracuse, NY USA | 01/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I first discovered Ivy after hearing 'Apartment Life' and loved it, even if some people said the guitars riffs weren't original. Ivy has a delightfull pop appeal to them.



I was biased to believe this album wouldn't be as good as their other work since it's now 11yrs old but surprisingly if they had released it today, I wouldn't have even suspected it was older material. Ivy's sound hasn't changed much, and in this case it's a good thing.



If you loved Apt Life, then get 'Realistic' as I would call it the sister album, same exact style, 90% as good as the original."

An indiepop classic, revisited

Matthew Watters | Vietnam | 07/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although Ivy themsleves (actually a trio of Americans Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger, with Andy's French-born wife, Dominique Durand) were rather notoriously dissatisfied by Kurt Ralske's minimalist, indiepop production of this record - they have opted for a slightly more orchestral pop approach on subsquent, self-produced albums - the stripped-down, jangly-guitars approach suits Ivy just fine. This 1994 release still contains their best batch of songs on a single album, every one of them memorable, hummable and emotionally affecting, and the melancholy but somehow propulsive quality of it all makes this an ideal album to listen to on lonely road trips. Dominique was also singing at the time with a less confident, more whispery quality, along with a charmingly heavy accent, which successive years of living in the US have tended to water down. Ivy might nowadays even find the exceedingly twee cover art a bit embarrassing, but for those of us who remember the twee era fondly, Realistic is a keeper. Make that: a classic."