Real Estate, a dependably great band, a band that puts out pretty, catchy, well-crafted songs, with a really recognizable sound and aesthetic. In that way, the band is a little like Spoon: consistently putting out good music, and for that fact, maybe flying under the radar now because of their ability to stay at a high level. “Daniel,” their new album, feels like a big swing—poppier but also more focused than “The Main Thing,” like a distillation of the qualities that make the band’s music so compelling. Incredible-sounding guitars, beautiful arrangements, Martin Courtney’s graceful vocals and incisive lyrics. “Daniel,” like “Atlas” and “Days,” my two favorites of theirs, is packed with great songs and great moments.
On “Daniel,” Courtney expresses a sense of unease and distress across several songs—distress that he seems to try to temper by reminding himself of how lucky he is, of good memories, good sensations. Real Estate are so good at marrying their brisk, beautiful music with these kinds of lyrics about malaise and heartbreak—where it’s only after a dozen listens sometimes that you realize how bleak the lyrics are.
He seems so defeated as he sings on “Haunted World” about how “there is no rest, there is no sleep/the day becomes the night/And I am on some cobbled street/Feel like I’m going blind/The sun is shining through the trees/This haunted world is killing me.” On “Freeze Brain,” he sings, “Lost in the trees/Tell me where we are/This world is diseased/But at least we can be here.” On “Flowers,” he sings, “You know what’s right in front of you/Is always so hard to see/Feelings of dread are nothing new/No, certainly not for me.”
But then on “Airdrop,” he sings so lovingly about a memory of a sunset, “The sun went down, we let it/Never been so contented/I won’t ever forget it.” And on “Interior,” where he seems so jazzed about meeting up with people after a long absence, “So good so far/It’s been so long/Since I’ve seen anyone I knew/Riverside Drive/November/I have been reckless lately/Passenger side/We’ll be gone ‘til morning light.” Courtney seems to land on a solution for himself in the last song on the album, “You Are Here,”—a reminder that there’s only so much we can do about the future, and it’s better to focus on what we’re doing now, “What is it you want to hear/There’s only so much time/Best we can do is be happy here/Sing another line.”
“Somebody New,” the first song on “Daniel,” is one of the clear highlights (among many) on the album. Starts with strings, which carries almost immediately into immaculate guitars—a total hallmark of this band, an acoustic and electric paired beautifully together. Courtney sings “It never ends/Inside the painted egg is another egg.” A song of confusion and disorientation. Later, in the song’s gorgeous ending, he repeats, “Hey buddy, what’s got into you?”
“Airdrop” too is another highlight. Guitar strumming, driving bass, but the acoustic guitar on this song sounds, at times, like a harpsichord somehow (it reminds me so much of some of Mark Mothersbaugh’s songs on the “Rushmore” soundtrack). Courtney sings about a stunning image on this song: “In a bowl/ Of freshwater pearls/Turned upside down, inverted/Around our heads it curls.” Beautiful specific detail, paired with some of the band’s most adventurous music on “Daniel,” a synth solo, some wild guitar rejoinders, all turning into one of the best outros on the album.