The paradox of Real Estate’s sophomore effort Days is that they are not an exciting band but they have undoubtedly produced an exciting album. They are a Brooklyn-based band dealing in lo-fi indie pop with hints of psychedelia; sufficed to say, originality is neither their strongpoint nor their concern.

It would be easy to dismiss the band on this basis but Days questions the value of innovation over songcraft, with the latter winning out in what is a thoroughly satisfying listen. So why take note of a band who, on the surface, are doing nothing new? This is a tight set of intricately crafted yet unassuming pop songs; simply put, Days is a triumph of familiar elements made distinctive through sheer skill.

It’s a record built primarily upon instantly memorable pop hooks and elaborate guitar lines given a Field Mice jangle. These guitar melodies are what hold the songs together as they interweave, fading in and out over one another to create a dense, hazy and yet surprisingly organic melodic network; never does this record sound overwrought.

Lyrically the band also use familiar material to find a charming beauty in normality. Days is peppered with elliptical snapshots of ordinary suburban living imbued with wistful melancholy, with lyrics like “Walking slowly up those three blocks / Things won’t be like they were before.” This track, ‘Three Blocks,’ helps demonstrate Real Estate’s mastery of subtle tones as they glide between its weary nostalgia to the more immediate and driving pop of ‘It’s Real.’

Real Estate, then, are a band who craft the extraordinary from the banal; this is why Days may prove underwhelming at first. However, as the last vestiges of summer fade away, this album’s understated grace and melancholia may prove the perfect soundtrack that slowly entrenches itself into the listener’s mind.