Welcome, world, to a review of Real Estate’s second disappointing album in a row, Atlas.

Atlas, the third album from New Jersey band Real Estate, shows the band at their most tight and accessible, yet at the same time, their most bland and uninspired.

With their debut eponymous album, Real Estate showed off a homespun and “earthy” (for lack of a better word) knack for creating catchy and off-kilter indie pop tunes. Songs like “Beach Comber” and “Fake Blues” dug their way into the inner-most canals of your ears and comfortably set up shop there for many days after that first listening.

Then came Days, Real Estate’s sophomore album.

Days saw the band move from smaller indie label Woodsist, to the big boys over at Domino (home of Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, etc.). With this move, Real Estate gained the ability to have their album available at stores like Best Buy, but lost the ability to keep the most pressing and attentive listeners interested. Sure, to the casual listener, adjectives such as “chill” and “breezy” could easily be used to describe this album, but to the overly-analytical listener, “boring” and “middle of the road” could be used in the same breath. Real Estate seemed to lose on Days what they genuinely had all over their debut album; inspiration. But, in the midst of the disappointment that came with Days, singles “It’s Real” and “Green Aisles” were easily admirable. And even closing track “All the Same,” the longest Real Estate song to date, can be admired for its grandiose attempt at combining “chill” with “epic.”

But now, Real Estate has unleashed the smoldering heap that is Atlas.

How I hate this album.

Granted, my first listening experience wasn’t all that great. I now hate iTunes Radio as much as I hate this album. Yeah, go ahead iTunes Radio, please, play an advertisement between EVERY SONG. Heck, why don’t you play me advertisements that tell me exactly what artist and album I’m listening to, you know, just in case I forgot. Silly me, I accidentally clicked on the “First Play – Real Estate, Atlas” button thinking it was going to be Bangerz.

Out of all the songs on Atlas, I could really only find one to truly admire, that being “Talking Backwards,” the first song to drop in advance of the album. “Talking Backwards” appeals to just enough pop sensibilities, yet is sung by some facial-hair clad hipster from New Jersey (Bruce, is that you?) with a voice that’s just wimpy enough, that if The OC were on today, it would probably be featured on an episode.

I just am simply not affected by this music.  It has no real depth, nor will it be remembered ten, twenty, even thirty years down the road.  No old, aged hipster is going to say, “Remember the day Atlas leaked? Man, that was an incredible day.” But then again, it’s probably just me expecting too much from the music I listen to. I should probably just be happy that I have ears and am able to listen to music.  Silly me.

So, at this point in their career, Real Estate is no longer singing “Budweiser, Sprite / Do you feel alright?”, but instead “My mind is drawing a blank / Don’t know if I can go back.”

To end with a quote on Atlas from Rate Your Music member lalalandon:

“This record reminds me of earlier today when i was drinking a glass of water and not listening to music.”

5/10