Martin Courtney - Magic Sign

Released 24th June 2022.

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 Courtneys 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 Courtneys 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 doesnt 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 w