Label: Domino

Released: October 17

Spotify // Buy

As this great Guardian piece shows, there’s nothing really remarkable about New Jersey’s Real Estate, and they like it that way. That’s largely why this album passed me by when I first heard it on the stereo – I hadn’t enjoyed their first one enough to pay it any special attention, and ‘Days’ formed an entirely pleasant background wash on the office speakers. However, after some encouragement from a fine friend who found its charms to be plentiful, I spent some proper time with it and realised it really deserves closer attention. ‘Green Aisles’ is my favourite song here, just because of the lyrics: “All those wasted miles/All those endless drives/Through green aisles/Our careless lifestyle/It was not so unwise/No“. It’s sweetly romantic and ruminative, the kind of cliched, early 20-something retrospection best suited to a quiet, calm moment with a friend at a busy party: not overblown or dramatic, just said and then skated over. I bought this album on my favourite weekend of 2011.

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Tags: days, domino, real estate