REAL ESTATE - The Wee Small Hours: B-Sides and Other Detritus 2011-2025 - CD [SEP 19]

CD - B-Sides and rarities compilation spanning the last 14 years.

Today, indie rock mainstays Real Estate announce a new compilation album, consisting of rarities and b-sides spanning the band’s 14 years working with Domino Recording Co. The project is entitled The Wee Small Hours: B-Sides and Other Detritus 2011 - 2025, and will be out this Friday, May 2nd. “This is something we’ve talked about doing for a while now: a compilation of non-album tracks with a title, subtitle, and maybe throw a span of years in there to make it official-sounding,” Martin Courtney said of the compilation. “The title comes from the lyrics to an unreleased song we recorded during the Atlas sessions at Wilco’s loft in Chicago back in 2013, which in turn references a great Frank Sinatra record. This feels to us like a worthy addition to the catalog and we hope you all love it.”

The compilation’s earliest track dates back to 2011, with a cover of The Strokes’ “Barely Legal” for a Stereogum Tribute album, and the b-side of the “It’s Real” / “Blue Lebaron” 7”. Other covers include “Paper Dolls” (The Nerves) from 2014, “Days” (Television) from 2021, and of course “Daniel” (Elton John) from 2024. It also includes “In My Car,” dating back to a Record Store Day fanzine flexi-disc from 2012, more b-sides including the tracks from the Atlas bonus 7” from 2013, and an unreleased track entitled “Two Part” from the Atlas sessions.

To preview the forthcoming compilation, Real Estate release a new song today called “Pink Sky.” The compilation-opener, “Pink Sky” was recorded last autumn at Tiny Telephone Studios in Oakland, during the same one-day session as the band’s cover of Elton John’s classic “Daniel.” The “Pink Sky” video directed by Micah Welner was made in frontman Martin Courtney’s hometown of Beacon, NY in early April, and features him in full wizard regalia.

Of the track, Courtney notes: “‘Pink Sky’ was among the batch of songs we brought to Nashville to record for our album Daniel. Somehow it didn’t end up getting recorded, because it wasn’t totally finished, and it also just didn’t seem to play well with the others. About 18 months later, when we were in San Francisco to play Outside Lands, we recorded this and a cover of Elton John’s “Daniel” in a few hours at Tiny Telephone in Oakland. A cool alternate title for the song could be ‘Mystik Spiral,’ like the band from Daria.”

Praise for Real Estate & 2024’s Daniel:

“Daniel…conveys an expert melancholy, its ups always just on the brink of an elegant down.” - MOJO 4*

"This record, this really feels like a quantum leap...a stalwart presence in the indie world." - NPR Music

"The songs are carefree but still complex, offering the best version yet of the refined summery jangle Real Estate has specialized in since they came out of New Jersey in the early 2010s." - Rolling Stone

"It’s the cleanest and leanest album they’ve ever made." - Pitchfork

“A welcome return to form.” - Record Collector 4*

“The word to describe Real Estate’s newest offering is “timeless”.” - Dork 4*

"A rebirth...'Daniel' is Real Estate’s most-bulletproof statement of musicality yet."
- Paste Magazine

"It sounds immaculate, and all the while, there are subtle left turns that make Daniel one of Real Estate’s best albums yet." - Consequence

"Everything about Water Underground is gorgeous, from the wistful slide work, the chiming arpeggios and the washes of warm acoustic to the earworm vocal hook."
- Guitar World

"It’s an ironclad law at this point, a logical theorem: Every Real Estate record is good, and every Real Estate record sounds like Real Estate, because Real Estate is good."
- Aquarium Drunkard

Tracklist: 

1. Pink Sky
2. Exactly Nothing
3. Barely Legal
4. In My Car
5. Two Part, Part Two
6. Paper Dolls
7. Blue Lebaron
8. Days
9. The Chancellor
10. Recreation
11. Daniel
12. Two Part