The most memorable moments come with the small flourishes-a folksy piano accompaniment on “November,” pizzicato violins that swirl into a dramatic crescendo on “Falling Down,” programmed drum beats that blend the outro of “Sting” into “Silent World.” Interviews with the band evoke a palpable pressure to leave an imprint on the world, to make a new record feel necessary, and not simply obligatory. Despite novel collaborations and a lush cornucopia of additional instruments, their basic patterns-open chords, lilting vocals-ground The Main Thing in a familiar context.
Growth, on an album-to-album basis, can be difficult to measure for a band like Real Estate. “Falling Down” traffics in shallow witticisms (“The wind’s the only thing that’s fully free”), redeemed only by Courtney’s tranquil delivery. On the Lynch-penned “Also A But,” the glacial track references natural disaster through nuclear war metaphors that sound immediately dated (“Floating atop a mushroom cloud,” he sings as the song peters out). But his lyrics instead touch upon a cognitive dissonance-between the personal nature of restless anguish and the broader societal forces that underpin it-that fits nicely with the band’s graceful guitars and rounded basslines.Įlsewhere, despite the band’s claim that producer Kevin MacMahon asked them to carefully consider each word, the writing falls a bit flat.
It’s a stretch to say that poeticized anxieties about adulthood, laid out by a pacifying tenor and backed by ornate arpeggios, rise to the level of protest music. On “Silent World,” he speaks in harsher terms about his Catcher In The Rye-like desire to protect his children: “Can’t let you wander off/Out in this wicked world.”Ĭourtney has mentioned a desire to be more outwardly political in his lyrics, in part to justify his band’s continued output during times of national strife. There’s a slight twist to that formulation on “You,” in which Courtney bemoans the eventual anxieties his children will have to face: “Just dream your time away/I see no better use for it/For soon you’ll be awake/Then you’ll have to get used to it.” Sung dreamily over glassy guitar, it comes off like an oddly practical lullaby, a childhood cautionary tale filtered through the inevitability of adulthood. Real Estate has always looked backward even songs written ostensibly in the present tense were weighted with autumnal melancholia. Parenthood is at the forefront of Courtney’s lyrics here.
The jammier moments come across as alternately goofy and genuinely self-serious, an appropriate mix for a band helmed by a father of three. The title track-with its freewheeling drum fills and little jazz-fusion-inspired guitar solo-focuses on each player, rather than melting into hazy harmonies. Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath, a featured vocalist on “Paper Cup,” composed her own harmony for the part, further broadening the album’s palette.Īs a result, the The Main Thing has an ensemble feel, a give-and-take between the musicians that feels more like jam bands than indie rock. As he did on 2017’s In Mind, Courtney recorded their demos from hundreds of miles from most of the band, with only percussionist Jackson Pollis and keyboardist Matt Kallman remaining in their adoptive city of New York. The new vastness of their sound-the sweeping synth that opens the album on “Friday,” not dissimilar to the boot-up chimes of a MacBook the shrieking strings that introduce “Paper Cup”-reflects not only their outsized ambitions (“We were trying to accomplish making the best record we’ve ever made,” Courtney said), but the physical distance separating the members.
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