Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	78/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	C+
The Guardian
Mojo
NME	8/10
The Observer
Pitchfork Media	8.8/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Spin	7/10

Atlas is the third studio album by American indie rock band Real Estate, released on March 4, 2014 on Domino Records. It was their first album recorded with drummer Jackson Pollis and keyboardist Matt Kallman, and the last one with lead guitarist and founding member Matt Mondanile.

After touring for the album Days was finished, in late 2012 Real Estate took a break. While guitarist Mondanile and bassist Alex Bleeker worked on their respective solo projects, lead singer and guitarist Martin Courtney got married and was busy writing songs, which was something that he had started while touring. The band then spent winter and spring working on songs, taking up a total of eight to nine months on songwriting before recording commenced. In mid-2012 and throughout 2013, the band would feature new material in their shows.

A friend of Real Estate suggested the album be produced by Jim O'Rourke, an idea which intrigued the band since they were fans of his work on Wilco's seminal album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and felt that his production style would fit with the "clean record" that they wanted to make. As the band was certain that working together would be unlikely given O'Rourke's enigmatic nature, their label proposed working with Tom Schick instead. Schick had co-produced Wilco's most recent album, The Whole Love, and was also the house engineer at The Loft, Wilco's studio in Chicago, Illinois. Since Wilco would be on tour, they gave Real Estate permission to record at the studio and use their gear, the first time for any band without Wilco's presence.

After mostly recording Days as a three-piece of Courtney, Mondanile and Bleeker, the addition of drummer Jackson Pollis - who had played with Real Estate since 2011 - enabled them to record basic tracks live as opposed to overdubbing tracks one by one. Before recording started, the band decided to add more sophisticated keyboard parts to be played by someone more proficient. Jonah Maurer, who joined Real Estate along with Pollis for the Days tour and performed several of the new songs live during his time in the band, had moved on to join Titus Andronicus. As a result, they recruited Matt Kallman, formerly of Girls, and had him write his own parts with a little direction. At one point, Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy dropped by the studio to witness the band recording several takes of a song that received glowing enthusiasm from him, but ultimately did not make the album.

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