In deluxe tip-on gatefold sleeve.
On “Paper Cup” and the making of The Main Thing, Martin Courtney says:
“Paper Cup is a song about getting older and realizing that this thing that I fell into doing over ten years ago – being a musician, writing songs, being a guy in a band – this may end up being my life’s work. Watching the people around me change and evolve, take on new challenges, and feeling sort of stuck in a rut, in a way. Feeling uncertain of the validity of being an artist in an age of climate change and general political and social unrest around the world.
It’s a song about questioning your chosen path in life and searching for meaning in what you do. Those questions don’t really get resolved in this song, but ironically, the process of making this record – really diving deep and trying to make it the best thing we’ve ever made – reaffirmed in me, and I think in all of us in this band, why we are doing this.”
The Main Thing arrives with a fresh commitment the members of Real Estate – Alex Bleeker (bass), Martin Courtney (vocals, guitar), Matthew Kallman (keyboards), Julian Lynch (guitar, vocals), and Jackson Pollis (drums and drum programming) – have made to each other, 10 years and 5 full-length LPs into a career spent crafting unmistakable and influential palettes of sound. The band underwent a collaborative evolution for this album, which saw each member experimenting in new roles, and alongside Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath, Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, Aaron Johnston of Brazilian Girls and a string quartet all play on the record.
The album title is, in part, a reference to the Roxy Music song; primary songwriter Martin Courtney explains, “Even before we decided where to record or who to record it with, I knew it needed to sound that good”, but as Alex Bleeker adds, “We discovered through the care and attention that we brought to this record that making music to resonate with other people is our catharsis. The ‘main thing’ is following your path of inspiration and hoping to inspire that in people around you”.
For the album artwork, the band enlisted Bjorn Copeland of Black Dice, whose visual work focuses on recycling by-products of consumer excess, to mimic the layout of Days.
1. Friday
2. Paper Cup (feat. Sylvan Esso)
3. Gone
4. You
5. November
6. Falling Down
7. Also A But
8. The Main Thing
9. Shallow Sun
10. Sting
11. Silent World
12. Procession
13. Brother