Daniel (2024)

""Daniel" re-centers Real Estate in a way that highlights their strengths without simply repeating past victories. The songwriting honors the stage of life Martin Courtney and his bandmates are presently in, and the nuanced production replaces potential clutter with sparkle that sharpens the pop edges of the songs.There are overt lyrical references to Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" that reinforce the album's influence on Daniel's mellow country undercurrents, and moments like the cloudy ambience of "Airdrop" or the jumpy beauty of "Market Street" tap into the same combination of existential uneasiness and reflective joy R.E.M. embraced on "Automatic For The People". This is Real Estate at their best, giving us the same bright and bittersweet indie perfection as always, only better with age and experience." (AllMusic; 4,5 uit 5 sterren)