eMusic Review 0
Real Estate sound unambitious to the point where it’s actually kinda risky: How would their cruise-controlled tempos, lovely guitar lattices and plainspoken, nostalgic lyrics stand out in the past three decades of indie rock, let alone in the hyperactivity of 2011? But Days is the rare record that imbues its instantly engaging songcraft with an actual point of view, perhaps the first in the past century of pop culture to recognize New Jersey as the Garden State — the expanses between suburb and metropolis that so many of us just end up in during our youth. On their self-titled LP, Martin Courtenay called this self-awareness “fake blues,” but acknowledged a universality that’s described on “Wonder Years” as a state of “not OK, but I guess I’m doing fine.” And Days remains timeless and universal, a soundtrack of acceptance and being at peace with ones’ surroundings.