‘Talking Backwards’ remains the only track by Real Estate that I have on my phone, ever since I first heard the thing back in 2014. It’s not the worst pick of the bunch to have. I was there when it got its “Best New Track” review on Pitchfork in the first few weeks of 2014, a time when I was checking out that website very, very frequently to get a new music fix. Its video (above) was released on the same day as that review. I liked the song, I think, then and there. Got me all excited about that new album Atlas which was on its way in March. The month came around. Pitchfork heralded the LP with a “Best New Music” tag and an 8.8 score. I’ll say I probably wouldn’t have given it all of that if I was on the writing staff then. But ‘Talking Backwards’ still stood out as that golden gem that deserved the praise it got when it was released as the initial single.

I was thinking about this song prior to writing all this, considering the lyrics, and I built up this image in my mind that it was about a guy talking another person with that recipient just not understanding or paying attention to what the guy is saying. A sort of “lights are on, but no one’s home”, sarcastic kind of tone. So I thought that it was funny that this ridiculing message was set to this very upbeat, sunny, summery music. Makes for good juxtaposition. But then after actually doing some research, I found it’s just a general song about miscommunication in relationships. It was also based on songwriter Martin Courtney’s own hesitant feelings of having to go on a long touring schedule with the band to promote another album after becoming a newlywed. So what I’ve learned is, there’s no agenda behind the lyrics at all and they’re pretty much self-explanatory. Sincere too, and that’s usually a clincher for me.

Yeah, I wished I liked Atlas a lot more than I did when it arrived. I even revisited it, maybe a few years back during those COVID times, to see whether time would have had any effect on my reception towards the music. It didn’t. And it’s not as if I’m saying the album is bad. I think it’s just, to me, a lot of the songs sort of blended into each other, and it was only the fine, fine melody in ‘Talking Backwards’ alongside its chirpy guitar riff/refrain that made it the strong highlight in the track list. I listened to Days when Atlas was still the band’s most recently released record. It sounded like more of the same. But even as I type now, I can still recollect the chorus to ‘It’s Real’, and I haven’t listened to that tune in ages. But, you know, five years removed from that limbo time we were all in, maybe it’s time to just do a deep dive into the band and see what happens. That’s just for me, though, you can all go about your day.