SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: REAL ESTATE – DANIEL

REAL ESTATE
DANIEL
DOMINO RECORDS 

Real Estate’s sixth album aspires to be a radio-friendly pop record, and that much is obvious from the opening tracks of the album. “Haunted World” has a nice late-R.E.M quality to it, full of shimmering pop hooks and vulnerable vocals, while its followup, “Water Underground”, is possibly even more radio-friendly, feeling very 90s soft rock in its rhythms. Unfortunately, that pleasant feeling dogs the album the longer it goes on.

It’s not that there’s anything especially bad here, as it’s an inoffensive listen, with good musicianship and decent lyricism, but there’s just nothing too remarkable here. In trying to be more accessible to the radio listener, Real Estate appears to have blunted its own creative edge. I never hated listening to the album, but as it wore on, each song became indistinguishable from the next, with one notable exception, the 60s-inspired “Victoria”, which was unique enough to offer a nice change of pace and is probably the album’s highlight.

There are green shoots of something here, be it more maturity in the songwriting or the ability to carve out fun pop hooks, but green shoots are about all we get. If this is the first step in a new direction for Real Estate, then, like most steps into the unknown, it’s a little halting and unsure, but it may just put them on the right path moving forward.

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