In 1994 they met Dominique Durand, a native of Paris who had moved to New York City to study English, and with whom they shared admiration for the Go-Betweens, the House of Love, the Pastels, Prefab Sprout and the Smiths.
[3] In 1994, Ivy signed with Seed Records and released "Get Enough," which the UK magazine Melody Maker named Single of the Week, followed by the EP Lately.
[4] Apartment Life (released October 6, 1997 on Atlantic Records) was praised by critics as one of the year's best albums and established Ivy as a band that wrote pleasant, well-crafted pop songs.
By this time, the band had also found success on both the big and small screens, scoring the Farrelly Brothers’ Shallow Hal,[7] as well as having their songs featured prominently in numerous films and television shows.
Chase and Schlesinger had also begun to receive attention for their work outside the band: Chase produced the debut album by French pop group Tahiti 80, which was a hit in many countries and led to production work with several other groups; Schlesinger’s other band, Fountains of Wayne, released two critically acclaimed records, and he also received an Oscar nomination for his title song to Tom Hanks's film That Thing You Do!.
The remaining five tracks were recorded at different times over the course of Ivy’s career, but were difficult to find, having been released only on limited-edition singles, compilations or soundtracks.
Ivy brought in UK producer Steve Osborne (New Order, Happy Mondays, Starsailor, Elbow) for his first-ever New York sessions to mix seven of the tracks.
In the Clear also featured guest appearances by friends like Iha, Porter, Brazilian string arranger Zé Luis (Bebel Gilberto, Caetano Veloso), and former Girls Against Boys frontman Scott McLoud, who dueted with Durand on the closing track, "Feel So Free".
Ivy have cited the Go-Betweens, Burt Bacharach, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Orange Juice, the Smiths, the Velvet Underground, the Beatles and Françoise Hardy as influences, as well as other artists covered on Guestroom.