Real Estate Announces New Album ‘The Main Thing’ & Shares Single

Real Estate announced a new album, The Main Thing, and also shared the single “Paper Cup” featuring Sylvan Esso. The Main Thing arrives on February 28 via Domino.

Recorded at upstate New York’s Marcata Sound, The Main Thing saw Real Estate reconnecting with engineer Kevin McMahon — who worked on the band’s 2011 album Days — this time around in the role of producer. Also, for the first time ever, Real Estate brought in outside instrumentalists as evidenced on lead single “Paper Cup” which contains vocals from Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath. Primary songwriter and guitarist Martin Courtney spoke about making the record and “Paper Cup” in a statement:

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.

Bassist Alex Bleeker added: “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.”

“Paper Cup” came with an accompanying Nick Roney-directed video. Watch it below:

The Main Thing Tracklist:

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