For all the jerks who didn’t like Real Estate the first two times around, there is little consolation to be found on Atlas. In fact, in addition to remaining unfailingly “chill”, there is a distinct air of “mope” on Atlas. What’s worse (for those jerks) is that Real Estate is sooo “chill” that it’s actually kind of hard to tell when the band is moping: the sad songs are often as equally middling in mood as the cheery ones. The good news is, this middling mood is exactly the thing at which Real Estate excels. So, for us nice people, this is grade-A jingle-jangle. Long live moderate rock.
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2014.