Atlas

Never underestimate the power of staring at a wall. That’s the lesson to be learnt from sedate New Jersey indie rockers Real Estate and their third record, Atlas.

The cover of the new album shows an abstract mural by a Polish artist who decorated the wall of a department store in the group’s hometown for more than 30 years. The band grew up around the corner, and years of passing by the artwork must have clearly cemented a sentimentality that plays out through the 10 tracks on Atlas.

The gentle drumming and undulating guitar of ‘Past Lives’ captures the wistful tone of nostalgia that permeates the record, as singer/guitarist Martin Courtney reflects,  “I cannot come back to this neighbourhood/Without feeling my old age/I walk past these houses where we once stood/ I see past lives but somehow you’re still here.”

The chiming guitars and hazy musical landscapes characterise tracks like the dreamy ‘Navigator’ and are close relatives of Wilco’s alternative Americana aesthetic, so it comes as no great surprise to learn that the record was recorded at the Chicago group’s loft studio. It’s a sound that Real Estate inhabit well – breezy, halcyon, but poignant, nonetheless.

The record is steeped in memories, but it’s never maudlin. ‘Talking Backwards’, ‘Primitive’, and ‘Crime’ are the album’s guitar-driven, up-tempo affairs, as is ‘The Bend’ – a melodic saunter of a track that is guided along by Alex Bleeker’s subtle basslines and morphs into a Beatles-esque psychedelic climax.

Atlas is a collection of beautiful memories mapped out through song; an unassuming journey through the past that resonates far beyond the mural that inspired it.

Listen to ‘Talking Backwards’ from Atlas here:

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