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Real Estate

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Real Estate on Tour

Over the last decade, Real Estate have crafted warm yet meticulous, pop-minded music, specializing in soaring melodies that are sentimentally evocative and unmistakably their own. While 2017's In Mind longed for normalcy against the backdrop of a life as strange as a touring musician's. The Main Thing brings that longing to a universal and urgent place, acknowledging the anxieties inherent in protecting a quiet existence. Reflecting on their collective concerns – existential, environmental, political – the group's fifth album is the result of many deep conversations, resulting in a collectively renewed commitment to their music and a desire to push themselves harder than ever in the work that they love so much. What emerges is a superlative collection of interrogative songs as full of depth, strangeness and contradictions as they are lifting hooks.

"I've got this family, and I feel this responsibility to gild this crazy world," says guitarist, singer and primary songwriter Martin Courtney. The record's most sentimental moments, then, are crystallized home movie flashes directed at Courtney's children. "I can't imagine what will be / in your earliest memories," he sings on "You." These mentions are set against darker realities; on "A Silent World," he pleads, "Can't let you wander off / Out in this wicked world." Then there's guitarist Julian Lynch's first authored song for the band, "Also A But," in which disembodied vocals intone "a poison bloom" and "mushroom cloud" apocalypse, set against sci-fi synths, unresolved guitars and propulsive drums. Instead of exploiting the juxtapositions between these opposing emotional modes, Real Estate embraces cohabiting contradictions. "It didn't feel dark to me," Courtney clarifies. "To me, it's the normal stuff."

This duality is built into the arrangements themselves, interlocking emotionally with the nuance of the lyrics. "Gone," about casting out toxic phantoms of the past, sets ominous descending strums against dirge-y drum machine before clearing the air with a lilting guitar lead. "Procession," hallmarked by a bright, two-note motif set under shifting chords and beats, pits hometown pining against generational complacency. The effect is like gazing through a rearview mirror masked by fog, a sentimentalism so obfuscated you're forced to look forward instead. "We create our own nostalgia. I'm constantly moving so I have more to reflect on," explains Courtney. "If you look at the first record, it was a wistful feeling we wanted to explore. As we get older, the complexity has become more obvious," adds bassist and singer Alex Bleeker. That's paralleled in the album artwork itself; the band enlisted Bjorn Copeland of Black Dice, whose visual work focuses on recycling byproducts of consumer excess, to mimic the layout of Days. Bleeker describes their intention as "the understated Real Estate layout run through Bjorn's pedalboard." The effect is uncanny, reflective of this record's astute self-awareness.

Real Estate's collaborative evolution saw each member experimenting in new roles. Drummer Jackson Pollis, whose love for soul classics like Curtis Mayfield is transparent in his in-the-pocket groove, also performs synth. Keyboardist Matt Kallman composed "Sting," one of the two cinematic interludes that grace Side D of The Main Thing. The record's instrumental epilogue, "Brother," is a four-year-old cassette demo from Courtney, whose parts were tracked over and replaced by his bandmates. Courtney, in turn, inspired by the lush detail of Joni Mitchell's Hejira, subbed certain basslines note-for-note on a synth. Recording over the course of a year in countless sessions at Upstate New York's Marcata Sound, the band reenlisted engineer Kevin McMahon, who helmed their sophomore effort Days. And for the first time, they brought in outside players to round out the sessions: filmic string arrangements recall the seventies scoring of Jean Claude Dennier; Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso provides a delicate duet on the Chic-tinged, self-satirizing ode to stagnancy "Paper Cup"; Pollis' rhythmic focus is rounded out by up-front percussion and congas provided by Matt Barrick of The Walkmen and Aaron Johnston of Brazilian Girls, respectively.

A working title for Real Estate's fifth album was Special Album. Instead, they settled on The Main Thing. In part, it's a reference to the Roxy Music song: "Even before we decided where to record or who to record it with, I knew it needed to sound that good," enthuses Courtney. "Which is an impossible goalpost, and a good thing." But the "main thing" has another meaning for the group: a declaration of music making's centrality to their own senses of self. "We discovered through the care and attention that we brought to this record that making music to resonate with other people is our catharsis," says Bleeker. "The ‘main thing' is following your path of inspiration, and hoping to inspire that in people around you. Hopefully the album itself will reaffirm peoples' commitments to themselves and to each other, as it did for us." Classic Real Estate reference points are still here – Yo La Tengo, Felt, Steely Dan – but they're refined into hazier grooves, expanded into extraterrestrial sonic layers, deepened into slow-rolling phases. You can't hit an impossible goalpost, but you can come close. Pouring all their hopes, dread, excitement, love and labor into these pristine arrangements, Real Estate made The Main Thing a special album indeed.

Reviews

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 37 reviews
  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Short and sweet

    by BRad on 3/15/24The Bellwether - Los Angeles

    Such lovely guitar melodies this band produces. The vocals needed to be higher however. Singer has a great voice. I’ve been a fan for years now. I love lots of music, even EDM, but myself being a guitar player, it’s great seeing a 5 piece band with harmonies Songs were short but very sweet

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Real Estate@the Bellwether

    by Julia on 3/14/24The Bellwether - Los Angeles

    The Bellwether was the perfect spot to see one of my fave bands, Real Estate...they played all my faves and the sound was great! Covering Weezer was awesome too!

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Real Estate, choice show!

    by @sandra_b_ware on 3/14/24The Observatory North Park - San Diego

    I have been wanting to see Real Estate for at least a decade and they did not disappoint! They played all the favorites and new tracks as well. Great vibe!

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    10 Year Anniversary Show for Days

    by Phenomenal on 12/18/21The Regent Theater - Los Angeles

    This was my first time getting to see Real Estate and it was everything I hoped it could be and more! They played for so long and are insanely talented. The instrumentals for each song was amazing and I felt like I could float into space at any moment. The vibes were impeccable and they were so engaging with the audience and so fun to watch. They went through all their albums and played a variety of songs and I could have watched them play for another 4 Hours but they were so generous with their time already. I legit cried hearing darling live. 15/10 definitely seeing them again!

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Soooo AMAZING!

    by N. T. on 12/15/21

    Watched them at The Regent for their 1 year anniversary of “Days” and omg they were fantastic! They played for so long and were so engaging with the crowd! They were so fun to watch and vibe to and their instrumentals are just so on point, I felt like I could float into space at any given moment. Can’t wait to see them again

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Flexcellent

    by Evan G on 6/17/19Webster Hall - New York

    I’ve seen Real Estate a number of times and they haven’t disappointed yet. This time around they went more into the visuals and background effects. They played flawlessly. Setlist changed too which is important when seeing someone in concert that you have already seen before. The crowd was friendly and fun. Maybe the best Real Estate show yet!

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Fantastic show!

    by MS1967 on 3/5/18Fox Theater - Oakland - Oakland

    Real Estate put on a fantastic show at the Fox! I was hoping for a few more of their slower and more melodic songs (Past Lives, Time, etc.), but every tune they played was perfection. I will definitely keep an eye open for their next show in the Bay Area!

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Real Estate is the Real Deal!

    by BlueWingedOlive on 2/27/18Fox Theater - Oakland - Oakland

    Totally Awesome Show. They rocked it. Vocals and guitar licks were spot on.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5

    Great show!

    by DA716 on 6/24/15Tralf - Buffalo

    Awesome venue and even better show! Openers were great as well

  • Rating: 4 out of 5

    great all around show

    by billmullen on 6/23/15Tralf - Buffalo

    Real Estate put on a terrific show at a great venue. If you like their studio work, you will love Real Estate live. They are not one of those bands that cannot recreate their sound in alive setting. I had heard that the band can be a little sullen on stage, but saw no signs of this. They seemed pleasantly surprised by the support they received on their first visit to Buffalo. The opening acts were also quite good. Bryan Johnson performing solo sans his "family" offered up a brisk collection of surf-tinged pop songs with great guitar work and nice lyrics. William Tyler a guitar instrumentalist did several interesting pieces utilizing loops and delay which bordered on the edge of being "just" noise. I am not a big fan of this type of music but Tyler did what he did and did it well. Tyler also told some compelling stories in between songs which made his sound landscapes more accessible because oddly you felt like you were listening to a friend. I will be seeing Tyler and Real Estate this weekend at Wilco's bi-annual Solid Sound event. I would definitely like to see Real Estate again and would be willing to drive to Rochester or Toronto to make that happen.