Real Estate | ||
| Allmusic Biography : New Jerseys Real Estate stake their claim to a warm, hazy style of indie rock with breezy melodies. The band was formed in Ridgewood by lead singer/guitarist Martin Courtney (Predator Vision and formerly Titus Andronicus), guitarist Matthew Mondanile (Ducktails), bassist Alex Bleeker (Alex Bleeker & the Freaks), and drummer Etienne Duguay (Predator Vision). The foursome had played together in bands -- including a Weezer cover band -- during high school, but didnt become Real Estate until Courtney returned to the Garden State after attending college in Olympia, Washington. After forming in summer 2008, the band began playing live that fall and released the Suburban Beverage 7", which introduced Real Estates brand of surfy, lo-fi pop, early in 2009. A song on the Underwater Peoples Records Showcase and the Fake Blues EP appeared that summer. The band spent the fall touring with Girls before its self-titled debut was released by Woodsist. The quartet joined the Domino Records roster in 2011 for its sophomore album, Days, which hit the shelves that fall as well as several Billboard charts, including the rock, alternative, independent, and vinyl albums charts. It reached number 52 on the Billboard 200. Shortly following its release, the band went through a lineup change with Duguay dropping out; he was replaced by drummer Jackson Pollis. The group was also joined at that point by auxiliary member Jonah Maurer on keyboards and additional guitars. This new assemblage of Real Estate toured feverishly for the well-received Days, though by their return in 2014 with third album Atlas, Maurer had been replaced by Matt Kallman. That LP went on to rank higher on all the same charts, landing in the Billboard 200s Top 40. Following a short break for other projects, including Courtneys solo debut, in May of 2016 Real Estate announced that Mondanile was leaving the band to focus on Ducktails. He was replaced by Julian Lynch, and the quintet of Courtney, Bleeker, Pollis, Kallman, and Lynch released In Mind in March 2017. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 5 Title: Real Estate Released: 2009-11-17 Tracks: 10 Duration: 39:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Beach Comber (04:28) 2 Pool Swimmers (03:16) 3 Suburban Dogs (04:36) 4 Black Lake (03:30) 5 Atlantic City (01:50) 6 Fake Blues (03:40) 7 Green River (02:40) 8 Suburban Beverage (06:10) 9 Lets Rock the Beach (04:42) 10 Snow Days (04:22) |
| Real Estate : Allmusic album Review : At first, Real Estate seems like another in a long line of cryptically search-proof band names, but the group’s self-titled album proves that their moniker makes perfect sense. The band excels at finding the bittersweet, whimsical, and poetic in everyday suburban life -- the real life behind real estate. They carry on this tradition from bands like Pavement, and echoes of that band’s laid-back, rough-around-the-edges beauty can be heard in their hazy jangle (shades of Galaxie 500, the Clean, Yo La Tengo and Oh, Inverted World-era Shins soft-focus melancholy also pop up from time to time). It’s no coincidence that two of Real Estate’s finest moments have “suburban” in their titles. “Suburban Dogs” spins a tale of comfortable confinement, its looping melody and guitars reinforcing its gentle constriction as Martin Courtney sings “suburban dogs are in love with their chains.” And while “Suburban Beverage”’s lyrics -- which consist mostly of “Budweiser, Sprite, do you feel all right?” -- aren’t nearly as profound, the song’s hypnotic warmth and epic length make it just as much of a standout. The band’s unabashedly pretty melodic sensibilities shine through on almost every track, making a nice contrast with their simple playing and not-quite lo-fi sound quality on pure pop songs like “Fake Blues” and “Green River,” as well as the more abstract instrumentals “Atlantic City” and “Let’s Rock the Beach.” While most of the album has a summery vibe, its closing track, “Snow Days,” shows that Real Estate’s classic melodies and crisp harmonies capture February just as well as June. Though half of Real Estate was already released by the band as singles and EPs, that just adds to the album’s instantly familiar feel -- which is a large part of this unassuming debut album’s appeal. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 5 Title: Live on the Radio Released: 2010 Tracks: 10 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Green River (?) 2 Younger Than Yesterday (?) 3 Fake Blues (?) 4 Beach Comber (?) 5 Lets Rock the Beach (?) 6 Suburban Beverage (?) 7 Basement (?) 8 The Mall (?) 9 Atlantic City (?) 10 Black Lake (?) |
 | Album: 3 of 5 Title: Days Released: 2011-10-17 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:04:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Easy (03:51) 2 Green Aisles (05:01) 3 Its Real (02:48) 4 Kinder Blumen (03:55) 5 Out of Tune (04:51) 6 Municipality (03:36) 7 Wonder Years (02:34) 8 Three Blocks (03:18) 9 Younger Than Yesterday (04:08) 10 All the Same (07:21) 1 Suburban Dogs (04:35) 2 Killin the Vibe (04:17) 3 Never Going Back (02:19) 4 Beach Comber (04:26) 5 Sit Around With Ya (03:04) 6 Part 2 (04:52) |
| Days : Allmusic album Review : Real Estate crystallize their entire attitude and approach in a single phrase off of Days: “I’m not OK, but I guess I’m doin’ fine.” This feeling of pleasant entrapment permeates the band’s second album from its sound down to its lyrical subjects. Working with producer Kevin McMahon, Real Estate give their music a coat of polish that makes their jangly guitars, sighing melodies, and complex harmonies glisten, but also smoothes off the edges and quirks that made their self-titled debut so appealing. Granted, the band’s charm was low-key in the first place, but this newfound sheen makes it easier for songs to drift into one ear and out the other without leaving much behind. Similarly, the playing here is much tighter than on Real Estate, making for a more cohesive sound that leaves less opportunity for accidental magic, such as the way “Suburban Beverage” sped up ever so slightly as it faded (however, “All the Same” provides a mirror image to “Beverage” as it coasts to a stop). Days manicured ennui presents one partly cloudy song after another, all with the nagging feeling that things aren’t quite right lingering in the background. When Real Estate bring some urgency to these sentiments, they connect: “It’s Real” looks for a way out of this lower-case sadness with extra poignancy; “Green Aisles” envisions suburban tracts as a giant supermarket; “Out of Tune” could be a theme song for perennial misfits; and the previously mentioned “All the Same” expresses its feigned indifference with riffs and rhythms worn at a jaunty angle. However, too much of Days just goes by in a pretty, but not especially memorable, blur; an affable shrug of an album, it’s fine, but that’s not necessarily OK. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 5 Title: Atlas Released: 2014-03-03 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Had to Hear (04:50) 2 Past Lives (04:33) 3 Talking Backwards (03:07) 4 Aprils Song (03:32) 5 The Bend (05:12) 6 Crime (03:15) 7 Primitive (04:16) 8 How Might I Live (02:29) 9 Horizon (03:11) 10 Navigator (03:33) |
| Atlas : Allmusic album Review : Jersey-bred indie rock golden boys Real Estate arrived in the late 2000s with a subdued approach to guitar rock that stripped away all unnecessary clutter and presented their tuneful songs in a manner as attractive and steadfast as primary colors, spring days, comfort food, or any of lifes basic staples. Free of gimmicks, pretense, and artifice, their tunes tapped into the insular, college-aged melancholia of the Clean or Yo La Tengos soft summer-night pulsations, later moving into a markedly Go-Betweens-steeped phase on their more sophisticated 2011 album, Days. With third full-length Atlas, Real Estate grow even further into the sound theyve been spinning for themselves, mellowing more while they become more nuanced in both playing and production. Beginning with "Had to Hear," the bands sound is decidedly signature, based on chiming chords and lilting vocals from songwriter Martin Courtney, lead guitar from Matt Mondanile that wanders between psychedelic curiosity and airy punctuation, and the surefooted rhythm section of drummer Jackson Pollis and bassist Alex Bleeker. All these elements feel increasingly familiar and confident. Their songs have always resided somewhere between head-in-the-clouds lightheartedness and day-dreamy nostalgia, but the ten songs that make up Atlas seem more mature, more deliberate, and lacking some of the carefree naiveté of earlier work. "Past Lives" ruminates on the strange feelings of returning to the neighborhood streets where the narrator spent his youth, while "Crime" relates a relationship in peril to something more harrowing and malicious. The upbeat "Talking Backwards" folds some of the nostalgic melancholia into a gorgeously produced pop song about long-distance communication breakdowns as bright and straightforward as Luna in their prime. The album was recorded in part at Wilcos Chicago studio the Loft, and the production is less hazy and more suited to the bands increasingly clear-headed melodies and expanded sounds, filled out with understated organ and keys from Matt Kallman this time around. Even seemingly buffering tracks like the Mondanile-penned instrumental "Aprils Song" (more in line with his solo compositions for Ducktails) and the Yo La Tengo/Galaxie 500-modeled "How Might I Live," sung by bassist Bleeker, seem to have a considered place in the albums flow. The songs float by quickly, not giving all of their secrets away at first listen. As Real Estate continue to grow into their own vision of pop, they take their place in a history of classic American indie bands, falling naturally in line behind the groups that influenced them as they add to the conversation with each subsequent album. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 5 Title: In Mind Released: 2017-03-16 Tracks: 12 Duration: 48:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Darling (04:21) 2 Serve the Song (03:14) 3 Stained Glass (03:54) 4 After the Moon (04:51) 5 Two Arrows (06:51) 6 White Light (03:15) 7 Holding Pattern (03:46) 8 Time (03:50) 9 Diamond Eyes (02:34) 10 Same Sun (03:18) 11 Saturday (05:04) 12 Two Part, Part Two (03:21) |
| In Mind : Allmusic album Review : Probably the biggest news item surrounding 2017s In Mind, the fourth LP from sauntering daydreamers Real Estate, was the exit of founding member and lead guitarist Matt Mondanile, who left to focus on his solo project, Ducktails. Another Ridgewood, New Jersey native, Julian Lynch, stepped in, himself a veteran collaborator of member projects including Real Estate, Ducktails, and Alex Bleeker & the Freaks. Its hard to imagine a smoother transition on the beachside sunset of an album that is In Mind. The group sets the stage with the elegant, serpentine jangle of opener "Darling." With a mix that allows ears to pick out unobtrusive synths and individual guitar tones, separately as well as together, it has a hypnotic quality thats active rather than passive. That quality is only reinforced by mixed meters that throw off the feel, just a little, before falling back in line for those tapping out 4/4 time -- like riding out a wave. Meanwhile, Martin Courtneys vocal line, always calm and cottony in character, is only one of many overlaid melodies, including the bassline, as he sings of finches and ferns waiting "for the warm sun to return, impatiently, as I wait for you." Listeners are the ones on the receiving end of those evasive rays by virtue of the vocal delivery, guitar tones, imagery, extended chords, and languid melodies, ever simpatico. Those traits hold throughout the album, maintaining a sunny humidity without getting sleepy. They avoid any prolonged drifting with a base of subtly catchy tunes that offer regular moments of discovery. Production touches, like robotic effects on double-tracked vocals -- but only for a few passing phrases –- and the judicious use of drum samples on "Time," add flavor without snapping us out of good vibrations. Later, textures like wah effects ("Serve the Song"), hazy distortion ("Two Arrows"), spacy timbres ("Holding Pattern"), and the harpsichord-like riffs that color the uptempo jangle of "Stained Glass" add muscle and glimmer to the grain. Along with producer Cole M.G.N. (Beck, Julia Holter), Real Estate seems to both fine-tune and expand an already identifiable sound on In Mind, with engaging and often beautiful results. "A strong current will sweep you downstream/It would be best not to resist." | ||