Press:
"the melbourne-based indie supergroup of sorts (members' previous bands include sleepy township, fur, huon, jaguar is jaguar), who formed less than a year ago, offer up ten superb tracks of intelligently crafted, slightly fuzzy and energetic indie-rock.
vocal and songwriting duties are shared between all four members, which ensures there's no danger of songs sounding stale or same-ish. the urgent 'open' is a real highlight, as is the Cure-sounding 'dream planning' and anthem-like closer 'out of control'.
and you can't go past lyrics like "you're busy making preparations for letting yourself down" ('learning zone'), delivered in typically lazy indie-rock fashion. it's difficult picking favourites though - each listen brings another lead guitar line, drum roll, vocal trade-off or bass run to admire."
--nick coppack, time off magazine
"i don't know if new estates in australia look much like the one i grew up in, but certainly the cover painting for "…considering…" looks familiar, looks like it could be troon or melbourne or anywhere. new estate themselves sound like they could be from anywhere also: they possess the kind of effortless placelessness that the best bands manage so effortlessly. what's easier to do is to place them in a cultural geography. so imagine the land of early boo radleys' melody and mayhem, where swirlies swoosh and where children are lulled to sleep by my bloody valentine when they still wrote songs (so, you know, there's an understanding here that MBV lost their way when they started work on loveless and that in fact if we're being honest the best MBV record is 'you made me realise' and that the best album is the aptly titled ecstasy). throw in a delicious occasional reference to life without buildings, the jean paul sartre experience and straitjacket fits and you know you're living in a pretty special place."
--alistair fitchett, www.tangents.co.uk
"this is not what i typically like, but it’s a sound like i've never heard before! i love it. it's not a clone of some other band, either. androgynous vocals with heavy bass lines really bring it all together. it reminds me of sunday mornings. these kids are young, but they also know how they want to sound. the grade: A"
--eric adkison, tlchicken.com
"i am really going to date myself here, but alas we all have our references. i remember a time, when we called "indie rock" "college rock" and a band that looked bookish and like they dressed no different for photo shoots or shows than they did at home was the domain of the modern lovers, the feelies, and beat happening. to hear music made by people that looked and, one assumed, acted like you was a rare and mysterious thing in those scary 80's. new estate maintains that same aesthete. listening to this cd i was reminded of sunny days driving to college listening to early throwing muses or salem 66. not a nostalgia band, this is just good, murky indie pop. where the mics sound hot and they sound like they just might lose control of the whole thing at any moment. songs like "free sherry", "broadway" and "out of control" really re-affirm my faith in the greatness of little indie labels like kittridge. "
--eric adkison, magnaphone magazine
"this is a thinking mans album. it’s full of imagery and great lyrics
that
require careful examination. this is the kind of album you find
yourself
enjoying several times a day.
i would highly recommend this to anyone.
"
--drums & wires
"everybody shares the songwriting credits here, so the sound is pretty varied throughout the
record. i find that i seem to prefer mia's songs (particularly
"collage"
and "don't like the way"), but the bats-ish "learning zone", written by
marc regueiro-mckelvie, is one of the album's highlights. the closing
"love bite" (a bonus track not on the original australian issue) is
also a
highlight, written by marc and larry gorman
musically, i'd say a good comparison is the mad planets, who share the
same style, mixing indiepop songs with noisy guitars and sounds. the
album's sound is pretty lo-fi, but it suits the songs well, masking
them
in a haze of fuzz and distortion."
--chris mac, indiepages.com
"new estate plays enjoyable indie pop, sparked by fuzzy guitars, dual
boy-girl vocals, and short, upbeat songwriting. the vocals shift gears
frequently, moving from subdued to spastic to deadpan. despite a few
missteps where songs need some beefing up, considering... shows
promise, trying to reinvent itself at every turn, but not straying too
far from new estate's accessible rock."
--punk planet
"imagine a toned down punk rock album. with all the raunchiness of elvis
and the beastly stateliness of john spencer, new estate is one of those
bands from australia that you should probably hear about but for
whatever reason don’t seem to. plenty of their songs seem carved straight from
the lo-fi turkey but if you discount the fuzzy distorted dissonance you’d
have yourself a pretty dandy indie rock album."
--smother
"warm, tuneful songs that start, continue until they're
over, and then end. fuzzed guitar that weaves in and out of the music.
rough edges? sure, "considering..." has a few, but this is plain,
honest music. do yourself a big favor and head over to the kittridge records web
site. look up the page with song samples. there's a nice long, one to two and
a half minute sample from each song on the album. You'll easily be able
to tell if you're going to like it (and you will, if you have any soul at
all). take a good look at the album cover while you're there. the cover art
is a painting by mia schoen, who is featured on this month's art seen page.
so do yourself another big favor, follow the links and check her paintings
out. they're also very cool."
--tone & groove
"the quartet shows up with 11 songs that recall the earliest, fuzziest incarnations of the apples in stereo, guided by voices, and superchunk... there's something charming about the way these musicians stumble through the door-- the slurred guitar chords, off-key guy/girl vocals and foggy sense of rhythm-- that makes you want them to stay."
--magnet magazine
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