Real Estate
Atlantic City Expressway
Self-Released
The boys of Real Estate, a four-piece from New Jersey, function as tour guides to a sunlit vacation shot on an 8 mm reel on Atlantic City Expressway, the band’s debut.
The weathered film metaphor seems especially appropriate here. It is a record that flickers a little and isn’t exactly perfect, but the care free nature of the self-released CD-R’s five tracks flow together in a way that makes the entire effort cohesively beautiful. At the same time, the music seems to effortlessly float just above the action it elicits, while never settling to just be background music.
This is our beach music, with Real Estate falling into other acts who have seen the summer of 2009 as the perfect opportunity to add a tropical, psychedelic influence to their classic pop tunes. Psychedelic is used loosely in this case – as it should be in most– the winding instrumental tracks never get all the way there, but there is a special undercurrent to the record that goes slightly beyond the pop structure.
It’s the perfect summer record, really. Although listening with too lazy an ear will keep some of its charms just out of reach.
On hazy album opener “Atlantic City” guitars, mandolin (?) and a very active drum rhythm collide in a two minute instrumental that is both layered and evocative, primitive in parts but not as a whole. And when it floats lazily into “Beach Comber,” it becomes exceedingly clear that what we have here is the perfect summer soundtrack.
It hasn’t received official release yet, only available on tour and Myspace, but check it out with beer and burger in hand.
