Real Estate the main thing

Real Estate announce new album, share song ft. Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath

We’ve been anticipating Real Estate‘s new album — their first since 2017’s In Mind — for a while, and today they finally announced it. It’s called The Main Thing, and it’s due February 28 via Domino. It was produced by Kevin McMahon (who engineered 2011’s Days), and it’s Real Estate’s first album with guests. First single “Paper Cup” features a very cool but perhaps unexpected one, Sylvan Esso singer Amelia Meath, and it finds Real Estate offering up some very fine yacht rock revival with a little “all your indie faves are jam bands now” vibes in the guitar solo. It’s cool stuff — listen and watch the Nick Roney-directed video below. Here’s what Martin Courtney says about it:

Paper Cup is a song about getting older and realizing that this thing that I fell into doing over ten years ago – being a musician, writing songs, being a guy in a band – this may end up being my life’s work. Watching the people around me change and evolve, take on new challenges, and feeling sort of stuck in a rut, in a way. Feeling uncertain of the validity of being an artist in an age of climate change and general political and social unrest around the world.

It’s a song about questioning your chosen path in life and searching for meaning in what you do.

Those questions don’t really get resolved in this song, but ironically, the process of making this record – really diving deep and trying to make it the best thing we’ve ever made – reaffirmed in me, and I think in all of us in this band, why we are doing this.

Real Estate — whose current lineup is Martin Courtney, Alex Bleeker, Matt Kallman, Jackson Pollis, and Julian Lynch — will also be touring this spring. The tour hits DC, Philly, and Boston but no home state or NY shows for the NJ band just yet, but you’d have to guess they’ll add one soon. Stay tuned.

Tracklist
Friday
Paper Cup (feat. Sylvan Esso)
Gone
You
November
Falling Down
Also A But
The Main Thing
Shallow Sun
Sting
Silent World
Procession
Brother

Real Estate – 2020 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