Crack

17/20

There’s a lot to be said for the current crop of up and comers from the States, and it’s in this ever-expanding and it seems consistently pleasing sea of shimmery, jangly indie-pop New Jersey’s Real Estate have been making some serious waves of late with new album Days. In a wild improvement from their first album, opening track, Easy, proves almost instantly the band can do this brand better than many of their peers. Armed with little more than a sparse, spellbinding riff that somehow lets you know life could well be alright (as long as you have enough rum and a nice little beach somewhere tropical), the rest of the album wraps you in its beautiful glow, like a beach fire and a spliff. What follows is a reverb-laden testament to the power of pop simplicity and while it echoes so many other young American upstarts, it doesn’t come across cheap. Days has a thickness and warmth beyond the band’s very few years together. The innate simplicity in the choruses (It’s Real) and the insatiable, infectious nature of the top-end jingle-jangle (Kinder Blumen) should eventually piss you off, but it never gets close. Gorgeous.

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Words: Billy Black