Real Estate- Atlas (2014) Review
Atlas immediately sets outs to to prove that Real Estate have moved beyond the “an album that sounds like one long song” tag I’ve been hearing from a lot of friends when they are brought up in conversation. Not to say that Atlas isn’t an exceedingly coherent and cohesive record, but the parts that make up the whole are just as special and unique.
Each song, while appearing airy and breezy, plays with the loose guitar riffs and hooks, while being arranged with air-tight precision. While “Had To Hear” and “The Bend” invoke a relaxed response (depending on how closely you listen to the lyrics), they are played with total precision and control. This in turn allows the album to breathe and the themes to emerge in the lyrics, which are crooned by singer Martin Courtney as if under the chorus effect, yet still remain easy to make out when one listens closer.
Speaking of the themes, Atlas proves to be a supremely rewarding album for those who will take the time to listen to the words and invest in the album. Reflective but not maudlin, personal yet universal, Atlas is a refreshingly even meditation on loneliness, suburbia and maturity. Indeed, mature is possibly the best word to describe the album, which never sinks into depression or falls for its own malaise. Album opener “Had To Hear” sets the pace for the album nicely: “I’m out again on my own/ a reflection in the chrome/ of an adding machine/ it’s been so long”. It falls nicely between the lyrical flair of Ben Gibbard and the straight-faced sarcasm of Jeff Tweedy; it comes into its own in it’s ability to be serious without taking itself seriously. On “Navigator”, the album closer, Courtney sings “I’ll meet you where the pavement ends”, in what has to be one of the more understated moments of skill on the album.
While it’s perhaps obvious that one of the prominent motifs on Atlas is the horizon, given that there is a song called “Horizon”, it is nevertheless important to mention when assessing the album as a unified whole. Just as the album speaks of “a subtle landscape, where I come from”, Atlas itself works as a portrait of this theme; just as the suburban sprawl is a ubiquitious crawl made of small spaces, so too does Atlas capture a small cross-section of a greater whole. It’s what makes the album so relatable, which while hard to gauge from a subjective perspective, it appears to be. “How Might I Live” is a good example of this, with bassist Alex Bleeker’s vocals finding the hidden guilt in all of us: “How might I live to betray you/ How might I live to see the day/ How might I live to say you’re not the one I love/ How might I find the words to say.” And with every syllable that comes from Bleeker’s mouth, so too does Matt Mondanile’s guitar follow, hammering home every point with a pronunciation too nuanced and too effective to be spoken. The alignment between the words and music adds perhaps the most substantial layer to Atlas, and was what most immediately struck me after hearing the album.
While it’s been mentioned how well the album works as a unified whole, so too does each song, with only a few songs in the middle falling slightly behind: “Crime” and “Primitive”, while by no means bad songs, struggle to make up the space between a brilliant opening and a strong ending. While most other review’s I’ve read tend to single out “Talking Backwards” as a good candidate for the strongest song Real Estate have recorded, I found “Horizon” to be devastatingly understated and effective, with an irresistible hook and almost perfect execution in structure and writing. However, “Talking Backwards” is easily the most catchy and radio-worthy song; while this is no true barometre for quality, this is truly a song that people deserve to hear by luck, if only to positively dilute the output of most radio stations.
Atlas ultimately reminded me of the analogy of the reed: strong yet flexible. And indeed in it’s deceptively breeziness and wandering guitar hooks was a dedication to craft and unwavering precision. Much like Summerteeth signalled the arrival of Wilco proper, Atlas marks the most significant progression for Real Estate, and promise a future of unpredictable yet quality releases.
Album highlights: Had to Hear, The Bend, Horizon, Talking Backwards
Garage Land 