The Sky Is Not The Only Thing That Changes Rapidly

Real Estate “Past Lives”

Over the course of this year, Real Estate is the band I listen to most often without necessarily identifying as a fan. The music is extremely listenable – the melodies and harmonies are always lovely, it stirs up a lot of bittersweet melancholy feelings, and works well as a nice, unobtrusive soundtrack to both work and idle time. But there’s something about the “background music” thing combined with the extremely low key and faceless quality of the band that makes it very hard to form any sort of fan connection. It’s not as though there is no character to this music – it has a very particular sense of aesthetics and thematic concerns – but this is a band that is almost entirely focused on craft and making music that’s easy to dismiss as wistful jangle rock for introverted indie dweebs. It’s not like it isn’t, or there’s something else going on here, but it comes down to the difference between being merely adequate in a genre, or being exceptional. No one is better at doing this particular thing than Real Estate.

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