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Long Distance  >>

After years of postmodern pop posturing from dozens of would-be Portisheads and Bjorks, it's something more than a relief to see Ivy's third album, Long Distance, get a U.S. release. The New York-based trio's languid but richly emotional meld of trip-hop, classic French-pop touches (singer Dominique Durand is a Paris native), and indie adventurousness shine here, even while displaying the outfit's deepest melancholic vibe. Few singer-songwriters could put across a sentiment like that of "Disappointed"--Durand explains that she's bound to leave a guy--without coming off defensive or taunting. "While We're in Love" offers a similarly bleak, if enticing, future. Long Distance never burrows so far into its own melancholy as to render the effect merely selfish or cold; even if your situation is hunky-dory, you'll be hard pressed not to revel in the subtle empathy of these numbers. The sole nonoriginal, the Blow Monkeys' 1986 single "Digging Your Scene," demonstrates Ivy's ability to render a late-summer dayscape replete with slowly pushed merry-go-round and intimation of oncoming loss, all with a wink. --Rickey Wright

In the Clear  >>

The growing, if belated, popularity of Ivy is a happy event. Over the course of a half-dozen releases, the band has married slightly trippy atmospherics to immaculate popcraft and the melancholy vocals of Paris-born Dominique Durand. In the Clear, their fifth album, finds the guitars occasionally louder (they roil and distort on the kiss-off "Clear My Head") but the mood essentially the same. It's a romantic, cautiously hopeful one, exemplified by the disc's closing "Feel So Free." Special and secretive--"Tess Don't Tell" repeatedly insists "It's just for you, it's not for anybody else"--In the Clear thrives on trademark Ivy contradictions and, now and then, an unexpected noise in the corners of the sound. --Rickey Wright

Apartment Life  >>

This one brims with Ivy's sophisticated brand of pop including their radio hit "The Best Thing" and "This Is The Day," featured in the hit movie There's Something About Mary. Originally released, 1997. Re-issued by Unfiltered Records, 2003.

Guestroom  >>

Ivy's decision to stick entirely to covers on their fifth album probably has much to do with the pregnancy of chanteuse Dominique Durand. But despite the fact that the band members didn't write a single note, they have made the 10 songs collected here their own, giving offbeat classics from sources as disparate as brainy punsters Papas Fritas, Serge Gainsbourg, and Kate Bush Ivy's own sophisticated, moody spin. If you weren't familiar with Steely Dan's "Only a Fool Would Say That," you'd swear that Durand, guitarist Andy Chase, and bassist Adam Schlesinger cooked it in their New York studio, giving the mellow rocker heretofore unimagined elegance. This outstanding, intelligent collection makes one wonder why the band isn't more popular. --Jaan Uhelszki