Real Estate - Reality

Mexican Summer Records

Released January 18th 2010

I LOVE BIG REVERB!!! Love it. Love it. Love it.

Just as they say the easiest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the easiest way to my ears is by turning up that guitar reverb in a song. Everything from early 60's surf rock, to the psychedelic sounds, to late '80 early 90's indie rock, employed this technique to full, in-your-face, effect. Real Estate fully embraces the reverb in addition to drawing from the above three musical influences with considerable effect on their newest EP Reality.

This EP is an upgrade to last year's self-titled LP on Woodist Records. While I liked the the psychedelic-folk/surf-rock vibe of that album a lot, and really enjoyed the song "Beach Comber" among others, I thought the album on a whole lacked a little definition to the overall sound. It seemed like they needed something else. They sensed this as well, and this EP is a step in the right direction.

It seems to me that Real Estate has drawn upon their fellow New Jersey-ites (ians?) Yo La Tengo on this EP. More specifically, very early YLT circa 1990's Fakebook. This manifests itself more in terms of the song structure (and BIG REVERB), of songs like "Basement", "Saturday Morning" and "Younger than Yesterday". While the band still blends and transforms the psychedelic-folk/surf-rock sound into something fairly unique, this added structure creates a far better overall sound capable of much more interesting things.

I do view this EP as a transitional step though. Lacking on Reality are songs that immediately pop out at you and catch you the way "Beach Comber" did on the previous album. "Basement" did manage to get stuck in my head after a few listens due to its sneaky-goodness though. I'm really looking forward to this band's next album, and judging by the two month gap between the last LP and this EP, that shouldn't take too long.

P.S. So excited about their show with Woods on March 14th! (SQUEEEEEEEAL!!!)

RIYL: Beach Boys, The Byrds, Yo La Tengo, Woods, Girls

Rating: 8.0 (out of 10.0)