Today, Real Estate has announced their new LP The Main Thing. Out February 28th on Domino, the brand new album delivers the band’s most inspired and self-aware set of songs to date, created over the course of a year at upstate New York’s Marcata Sound. Following his work on 2011’s Days, engineer Kevin McMahon returns as producer, and, for the first time ever, Real Estate have brought in outside instrumentalists and special guests like Sylvan Esso, whose vocalist Amelia Meath features on first single “Paper Cup.”(listen below) Across the 13 interrogative tracks – as full of depth, strangeness, and contradictions as they are lifting hooks – the band balances existential, environmental, and political anxieties with fatherly sentiments, self-satirizing lyrics, forever-lively guitar lines, and shimmering strings.
After premiering on Sirius XMU and BBC 6 Music this morning, Real Estate have now released “Paper Cup” (feat. Sylvan Esso) everywhere, alongside a Nick Roney-directed music video chronicling the final performance in the life of a giant animatronic squirrel named Chipper.
The Main Thing arrives with a fresh commitment the members of Real Estate – Alex Bleeker (bass), Martin Courtney (vocals, guitar), Matthew Kallman (keyboards), Julian Lynch (guitar, vocals), and Jackson Pollis (drums and drum programming) – have made to each other, 10 years and 5 full-length LPs into a career spent crafting unmistakable and influential palettes of sound. Primary songwriter Martin Courtney explains, “Even before we decided where to record or who to record it with, I knew it needed to sound that good,” but as Alex Bleeker adds, “We discovered through the care and attention that we brought to this record that making music to resonate with other people is our catharsis. The ‘main thing’ is following your path of inspiration and hoping to inspire that in people around you.”
Real Estate will perform music from The Main Thing at 24 US tour dates and counting this spring. The Main Thing will be available on CD, LP and digitally. A limited-edition, gold-colored 2xLP – including a tip-on gatefold jacket with Bjorn Copeland’s collage piece mounted on the front cover – is available to pre-order from Domino Mart
Photo by Jake Michaels
The Main Thing Track List
Friday
Paper Cup (feat. Sylvan Esso)
Gone
You
November
Falling Down
Also A But
The Main Thing
Shallow Sun
Sting
Silent World
Procession
Brother
2020 US Tour Dates
4/9 – El Club – Detroit, MI*
4/10 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL*
4/11 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN*
4/13 – Slowdown – Omaha, NE*
4/14 – The Truman – Kansas City, MO*
4/15 – The Ready Room – St. Louis, MO*
4/16 – The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN*
4/17 – Brooklyn Bowl Nashville – Nashville, TN*
4/18 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA*
4/20 – Cat’s Cradle – Chapel Hill, NC*
4/21 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC*
4/22 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA*
4/23 – Royale – Boston, MA*
5/7 – Fox Theater – Oakland, CA†
5/8 – The Fonda Theater – Los Angeles, CA†
5/9 – Belly Up Tavern – San Diego, CA†
5/10 – The Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ†
5/12 – The Granada Theater – Dallas, TX†
5/13 – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater – Austin, TX†
5/14 – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX†
5/18 – Gothic Theatre – Denver, CO#
5/19 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT#
5/21 – Neptune Theatre – Seattle, WA#
5/22 – Revolution Hall – Portland, OR#
*with Palm
†with Meg Baird
#with Itasca
