“Daniel” It is the sixth album of Real Estate. I highlight this because the sixth album of a band or an artist usually only matters to the fans of that band or artist, especially if the fourth and fifth album of that band have been, to be clear, disappointing, as is the case at hand. . At this point, no one is going to be given a prize for discovering that band and that sixth album usually confirms the decline.
But, in this case, Real Estate They have released what is possibly the best album of their career or, if you prefer, their best collection of songs, an album that picks up the torch of their best works, “Days” and “Atlas”, with its bright and melancholic melodies and “jangle” guitars and improves it with a more classic tone, light country touches (that pedal steel!), the best sound of their career and a maturity that suits them wonderfully .
Although let’s be clear, “Daniel” is not an album to change your life, nor were they “Days”(11) o “Atlas” (14), but it is an album that can make it more enjoyable, there are no great lyrical depths, but rather a happy escapism (although not naïve) that doesn’t hurt in these times. But, on a compositional and melodic level, we are facing her best moment, there is almost no filler here and the first four songs on the album are among the best of her career.
It’s as if they had added a bit of country rock and light doses of psychedelia to their long-standing jangle formula. Think of this album as an amalgamation of the first The Shins, the Elephant 6 groups, Beachwood Sparks, all produced by the person responsible for “Golden Hour” (18) by Kacey Musgraves, something the latter is true with Daniel Tashian being the producer, a choice that is due to the daughter of Martin Courtney – leader of Real Estate – idolizing Musgraves’ album.
As I said, the first four songs (“Somebody New” and the three advance singles “Water Underground”, “Haunted Street” y “Flowers”), are the poker of aces on the disc, but the rest is not bad either, “Interior” is growing little by little, the Beatles coming to mind “Abbey Road” and George Harrison of “All Things Must Pass”, It is pure classic pop rock, melodies that seem simple but are not, like those summer caresses, and with that great pedal steel at the end. It sounds more classic, more organic, as if they were all playing together in the same room.
On the second side, after focusing totally on the songs at the end they get carried away a little, first in the notable “Market Street”with a Buffalo Springfield point and even a Neil Young solo, or in the final song, “You Are Here”, in which the elongated instrumental ending can be seen as a kind of nod to the Grateful Dead.
Definitely, Real Estate have come back on their own and have delivered a remarkable album that, unfortunately, no one is going to listen to with the same ears as “Days”because they are already a veteran band, because they are no longer “cool” (although they probably never were) or because their indie jangle is more out of focus than ever, but still, they have never sounded better.