Real Estate is the only band that can truly claim to have transcended the brief beach-rock fad of 2009 and 2010. The Ridgewood, N.J. band released its scrappy, surf rock-inspired debut in 2009 just as the beach movement was about to hit its zenith. Then 2011 rolled around, and as the group’s contemporaries plummeted into self-parody or renewed obscurity, Real Estate released “Days,” the album the group will likely forever be known for. With “Days,” Real Estate was able to effortlessly transcend its past through a mixture of incredible guitarwork, indelible riffs and a strong Grateful Dead influence.
While that album was more than enough to hold fans over for three years, it raised the question of whether the band would continue to push the spent-seeming neo-surf-rock sound forward or settle comfortably like its peers. “Atlas,” the band’s third album, finds the latter scenario to be the troubling truth. While the album is not quite a death-knell for the group’s career, there is almost nothing on it the band didn’t do better on “Days.”  
There is no doubt in my mind Real Estate could have expanded on its sound — though its first two records were fairly stylistically consistent, there were still acres of potential within “Days.” But there are times on “Atlas” where it feels a bit too much like a clone of its predecessor. Both have an instrumental as the fourth track, and both wait until late in the album to let the arguably more charismatic Alex Bleeker take over vocals from lead singer Martin Courtney.
These were both great ideas on “Days,” and repeating them isn’t a terrible idea so long as they work as well. This is not at all the case on the Bleeker song. Bleeker’s wistful vocal on that last album’s “Wonder Years” was easily the strongest vocal performance on that album, and while his voice is in fine form here, the slow pace and cliché lyrics don’t do it justice.
Comparatively, the album’s instrumental, “April’s Song,” is far better than the last album’s “Kinder Blumen” — at least on its own. But while “Kinder Blumen” served its purpose well — as pleasant filler that enjoyably slowed the pace of the album — “April’s Song” doesn’t work quite as well structurally. This is largely due to most of the jammier songs being on the first side rather than on the second side, as they were on “Days.” Had the instrumental been moved down a few tracks to break up the comparatively swift second half, it might have shined brighter.
The second half is what truly drags the album down. It only has one memorable song — “Primitive.” Even that song has to be elevated substantially by Matt Mondanile’s gorgeous, Jerry Garcia-like lead. None of the others are anywhere near as distinctive, and while they could have contributed to a nice ambient stretch of the album, they end with the economic swiftness of pop songs. This is most glaring on the concluding “Navigator,” which ends the album on an abrupt note.
But the looser tracks at the beginning are as good as anything the band’s ever recorded. “Had To Live” is simultaneously an extremely meticulous pop song and the freest jam on the album, while “Past Lives” is driven by a gorgeous electric piano and “Talking Backwards” may have the best riff of any Real Estate song. That these songs are the standouts suggests that if Real Estate had embraced its jam-band influences more, the group could have ended up with a better album. There’s still time for them to do so, but at the moment, “Atlas” is a disquieting hint that the group might simply choose to settle down instead.
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