Review: Real Estate - Atlas
Music can be magical when it resonates with us and the notes, melodies and lyrics really chime with our being. On Atlas, Real Estate have taken time to mature their sound while still being able to evoke childhood memories in the listener.
This is the kind of music that is so fitting for bike riding past houses through your old neighborhood or exploring a new suburb of a familiar city. This album was made for walking on crisp fall evenings, reflecting under shady trees on spring afternoons, or just falling in love for the first time.
On “Horizon”, there is a true sense of motion as lead singer Martin Courtney sings: “In this rolling landscape, how’d you know just where I’d be?” It’s the soundtrack to your first car ride with the windows down on a sunny May day. Gorgeous “Past Lives” is nostalgic, too and reminds me of looking into the reflection of a puddle on a city street, with vivid colors blending together.
“I have no idea where the time went,” Courtney admits on the closing track “Navigator”. In the moment when you reflect and realize life is moving so quickly, it can be quite overwhelming.
“April’s Song”, an instrumental break in the album, causes me to think of workflow, when you get so focused and productive that you enter flow. Hours can pass unknowingly and before you’re aware, the day is over and it’s time to go home.
This release, compared to Real Estate’s previous album Days, has a heightened level of quality in the production with the same inventive and heartfelt songwriting. Whereas instruments on tracks like “Green Aisles” sounded good, Atlas is pristine and the crisp production even makes the tracks have a further depth. “Crime” is a fine example of this because although the layered guitar harmonies act as a whole, you can really hear each individual instrument.
On “Had to Hear”, Courtney sings: “I’m out again on my own”. Atlas makes us not feel so bad for taking our own route.
Watch the guitar tab tutorial for “Crime”:
Pre-order Atlas, out March 4.