Live On the Green alums Real Estate are back already with a follow-up to 2020s The Main Thing. Their latest six-track Half a Human EP came out March 26th via Domino Recording and it’s as beautifully meditative and lulling as you’d expect from the New Jersey group. The title track is Dan’s DJ Pick of the Week!
At its core, Real Estate is an indie guitar band. It takes one listen for the hyper-clean riffs on “Half a Human” to prove this if the rest of their discography didn’t already have you convinced. When combined with laid-back vocals and dreamy instrumental interludes, their sound resonates with a maturity symptomatic of the more than a decade they’ve spent on the scene. In a promotional video posted to Twitter on the day of the EP’s release, an abstract poem explains what listeners can expect on their latest project:
Structure in the
infinite riff
First time you inhale
the chord hits your eyes
and reads like a paperback
for your ears
The bones of the six songs appearing on the Half a Human EP were constructed during the making of The Main Thing in 2020. Then, the band passed material back and forth remotely as the pandemic raged. Martin Courtney, the principal songwriter, explained in a press release, “When I was writing a lot of these songs, I was feeling a little weird about being in a band. Like, ‘How is this still a thing?’ I was feeling silly about it and then coming around to it at the same time. This is what we’re good at and it’s what we love to do and want to keep doing. I don’t want to do anything else.”
On Half a Human, they’ve certainly embraced the digital. The styling of the title track’s psychedelic and highly edited music video provides one example, as does the pre-release ZOOMIN’ WITH REAL ESTATE variety show that the band put on for fans. They’ve adapted to the times, and they’re here to stay.
Be sure to tune into 100.1 FM or lightning100.com to hear “Half a Human” by Real Estate featured as Dan’s DJ Pick of the Week. Be sure to let us know your thoughts! Tweet at us with #L100DJPick and share your take on the track.
