Real Estate celebrated the release of Daniel, their ninth album over 15 years, by dropping by Studio A to play a few tunes. As frontman Martin Courtney explained in my chat with him and bassist Alex Bleeker, Martin’s daughter gave Kacey Musgraves’ album, Golden Hour, a lot of play around the house. Courtney became a fan of Golden Hour‘s producer Daniel Tashian and this led to Real Estate, with roots in Bergen County, to head down to Nashville where FUV’s old friends worked with Tashian in Music City’s storied RCA Studio A.

Taking advantage of Nashville’s deep talent pool, the group brought in local ace Justin Schipper to add pedal steel guitar to the arrangements. The result is not a twang, but a gauzy sonic layer that unobtrusively complements Real Estate’s familiarly engaging melodies. After hearing the album, I thought the pedal steel might be Daniel’s secret sauce. However, after listening to the band in our Bronx studios without the pedal steel parts, I realized there really wasn’t any secret — only an outstanding bunch of songs from a band in excellent form, working harmoniously with a talented producer in a legendary studio.

In this session, hear the band — Courtney, Bleeker, keyboardist Matt Kallman, guitarist Julian Lynch and drummer Sammi Niss — play three songs from Daniel — “Water Underground,” “Flowers” and “Haunted World.” They also treated FUV to a special performance of Elton John’s “Daniel,” which helped give the album its name.

In between songs, Courtney and Bleeker offered insights into the selections and shared some details about recording them. They also dropped a few tidbits about creating the videos for “Water Underground” and “Flowers.” In addition, Steely Dan, R.E.M., Talking Heads, Franz Kafka, “The Adventures of Pete & Pete,” and even my own family dog as a kid  — a West Highland White Terrier named Danny — all managed to find their way into the conversation.

Top Ten Albums of 2011
1. Paul Simon; So Beautiful or So What
2. Tom Waits; Bad as Me
3. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi: Rome
4. Wilco; The Whole Love
5. Wild Flag; Wild Flag
6. Feist; Metals
7. Real Estate; Days
8. Girls; Father, Son, Holy Ghost
9. John Hiatt; Dirty Jeans & Mudslide Hymns
10. Radiohead; The King of Limbs

Ten Essential Albums of 2011 by NYC Artists
– Thurston Moore; Demolished Thoughts
– The Strokes; Angles
– KJ Denhart; Album No.9
– Battles; Gloss Drop
– Mike Doughty; Yes and Also Yes
– Tre Williams & The Revelations; Concrete Blues
– Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra; MTO Plays Sly
– The Gaddabouts; The Gaddabouts
– Kirsten Thien; Delicious
– Asobi Seksu; Fluorescence

Honorable Mentions 10
– Mr. Heavenly; Out of Love
– Gillian Welch: The Harrow & The Harvest
– Black Keys: El Camino
– The Kills; Blood Pressures
– Wye Oak; Civillians
– Greenhornes; Four Stars
– Fountains of Wayne: Sky Full of Holes
– The Head & The Heart; The Head & The Heart
– The Vaccines; What Did You Expect from The Vaccines?
– Mocean Worker; Candygram for Mowo

Songs of the Year
Lykke Li; Get Some
Amy Correia; Powder Blue Trans-Am
Garland Jeffreys: Roller Coaster Town

Covers of the Year
Norah Jones: Jesus Etc. (Wilco)
James Blake: Limit to Your Love (Feist)

Top Twelve Concerts of 2011
1 Paul Simon at Webster Hall
2 LCD Soundsystem at Terminal 5
3 Deervana (Deer Tick playing Nirvana) at Brooklyn Bowl
4 Shemekia Copeland at Allen Room, Lincoln Center
5 FUV Holiday Cheer w Mavis Staples, Josh Ritter, The Head & The Heart, and Dawes
at the Beacon.
6 Mose Allison at Jazz Standard
7 Gang of Four at Irving Plaza
8 Peter Gabriel at Ed Sullivan Theater
9 Matthew Sweet at City Winery
10 Queens of the Stone Age &
11 Kyuss Lives at Terminal 5
12 Steely Dan at the Beacon Royal Scam Night