Real Estate: Easy, Breezy And Not The Least Bit Sleazy
February 15th, 2010
Given that I’ve listened to Real Estate about 50 times in the past six weeks, you’d think I would have managed a write up by now. Well, as luck would have it, you’d be wrong. (To be fair, you’d be “wrong” about something which you had no intention of or reason to be thinking about. Which is silly. Never mind, this is anti-thought.) Real Estate is the first proper record from Real Estate, a young outfit from New Jersey which features the man—on guitar—behind the lo-fi jam-pop of Ducktails and more sun-drenched slacker songs than you can shake a stick at. The guitars are lazily layered one upon the other, replete with copious amounts of jangle and chained delay. The vocals, provided by Martin Courtney, are warm and distant, like the late summer sun. The thematic imagery of water is omnipresent, from song titles to lyrics to supposed recording techniques. The drums—quite literally—sound as if submerged in a turquoise swimming pool, recorded to cassette, and then played back into a mic through a shitty boom box. And it sounds fantastic.
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If I may gush, “Fake Blues” is my absolute JAM right now. I simply can’t get enough. I replay it, and then I replay it, and then I switch to “Beach Comber” (my other absolute jam right now) and then replay it again. The former is a peppy and ironic take on a classic formula, Courtney confessing that he’s really got no business writing the blues. Life is good. The up and down rhythm of Matthew Mondanile’s high pitched Strat is hypnotic while the deep “timpani” drums gallop in the background. The latter is thoughtful twang, easy and breezy, gussied up for a waltz-y shoreline jaunt and laid out in the sand to bake. The album isn’t all catchy ditties, though, as the foursome wanders in and out of its own bliss to explore their tunes with a mature naiveté.
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From a West Coast perspective, the culture of New Jersey has historically been equated with general sleaziness (i.e. Bon Jovi’s glory years, Atlantic City, the Sopranos), but this record bucks that trend quite emphatically. Maybe it’s because Courtney (astutely) spent his college years here in our Evergreen State? Dunno. Whatever the reason, warm up your winter with the tracks below.
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(Sorry for the low digital quality)
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