Real Estate have a knack for creating music that is both soothing and catchy. Over the past 15 years, they have released five albums of unassuming yet memorable indie pop. So it makes you sit up and notice when the promo text hails their sixth album, »Daniel« as their best yet. Of course, as a record label publicist , you have to come up with something impressive, but the superlative is often unwarranted. But even if »Daniel« isn’t a reinvention on the scale of Radiohead’s »Kid A,« it’s still a collection of 11 solid songs that deliver on the band’s tried-and-true soft-rock formula. The quartet recorded the album in Nashville, and the city’s influence can be heard in the occasional use of pedal steel guitar. Compared to their last two albums, the songs are more compact and get to the point more quickly. The textures are also a bit richer, with the addition of synths and other claves. Otherwise it’s business as usual for Real Estate. Martin Courtney sings softly about universal themes, the guitars jangle over bouncy bass lines and unobtrusive drums. »Daniel« is, as boring as it may sound, just another good to very good Real Estate album.
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