Magic Sign: Opaque Violet Vinyl LP

Label: Domino Recordings
Release Date: 24th June

Martin Courtney of Real Estate has a magic ability to capture melody, to generate a nostalgic feeling for something you didn't know was in you, to pull the world of folk and country and indie pop together without it being any of those three. Sticky hooks and good vibrations all over this.

Martin Courtney, the front man of indie rock mainstays Real Estate, releases his second full-length solo album, ‘Magic Sign’, via Domino.

Written throughout 2020 and 2021, the album came together late at night, while Courtney’s kids slept upstairs and his wife worked overnight shifts at the hospital, a role reversal from his former days out on tour while she stayed home with their family.

Nostalgia is naturally woven into Courtney’s sensibility. “I was singing about the good old days even on the first Real Estate album,” he laughs, noting that the ‘old days’ were only two or three years ago at that point. Courtney doesn’t spend the entire record looking back - many of these are his most present tense to date - but a youthful exuberance does propel it forward. Courtney notes that he imagined the songs emerging in a post- pandemic world, providing a soundtrack for better days of relief and optimism.

‘Magic Sign’ is written, performed and produced by Martin Courtney. The album was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Rob Schnapf at Mant Sounds in Los Angeles and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound. Additional performers include Matt Barrick, Oliver Hill, Kacey Johansing and Tim Ramsey.