American indie pop band Ivy (Andy Chase, Dominique Durand, and the late Adam Schlesinger) have reissued their seminal 2000 album Long Distance… it is available now to buy on Bar/None Records. This is the follow-up to their Anniversary re-issue of Apartment Life, released in 2023.

I have gotten the chance to listen to both re-issues and will be talking about the music and how important these two albums are to Ivy.

Before I talk about the albums, I wanted to give you a little background on how I came to find Ivy. I’ve gone on record to say that I got Apartment Life on cassette tape in 1997. It was my first Ivy album and it remained my favorite album. I even went back and bought their debut album Realistic, which I did not like.

Reading interviews, Apartment Life, you can tell that their sophomore album got a massive upgrade. Andy Chase mentioned what an important record it was and it was their first time with high production and studio recording. And their songs improved with a higher budget from Atlantic Records, as they spent it on hiring session horn players and string quartets.

This was also partly thanks to getting the great Lloyd Cole and Peter Nashel to produce their new album. Songs that immediately called to me were “I’ve Got a Feeling”, “Get Out of the City”, and “You Don’t Know Anything.”

After three years, the band finally released the follow up album, Long Distance. When it finally came out, the music changed a little, leaning towards dance and new wave. Still, between Apartment Life and Long Distance, this was Ivy’s finest offerings. Take it from me, as someone who owns all their albums.

Although Japan got Long Distance in 2000, we didn’t actually see the album release until 2001, which was when I first saw the band on their promotional tour in Oct 2001. On that tour, at the now-defunct 400 Bar, the group played a good mixture of Apartment Life and Long Distance.

I loved the show so much, that I bought the Long Distance T-Shirt from the show. It was my favorite shirt for a long time, wearing it regularly until it was torn.

Revisiting Long Distance, that opening track “Undertow” really pulls you in. Other stand out tracks were “Lucy Doesn’t Love You” and “Edge Of The Ocean”.

What’s new on the reissue of Long Distance was a bonus track called “All I Ever Wanted”, which sounded pretty good. It’s like a lost track from Apartment Life. There’s also two remixes of “Edge Of The Ocean” as bonus tracks.

As for Apartment Life, they had so much outtakes and demos that they’ve released a whole new compilation called Apartment Life Demos, which makes for a great companion album to Apartment Life. It’s all your favorite songs, but slightly different. Like they were recorded in an alternate reality! Some songs had slower tempos, some songs have different/alternate lyrics, some songs have different notes, some songs have a much longer intro, some songs have different chord progressions. It’s great… sometime I think the demo version (like “You Don’t Know Anything”) is the better version, with more guitars and less vocals.

My favorite was “I’ve Got A Feeling”, which had singer Dominique Durand snorting early in the song, and then later laughing. You can only imagine what fun they were having during the studio recording.

Long Distance and Apartment Life are both available now. If you are a fan of the band, these albums are worth adding to your collection.