"Not exactly one to hide his influences, on Magic Sign, you can still hear trace elements of the listening Courtney might have done in his teens and twenties - you could hazard a guess at Felt, The Feelies, The Clientele, The Byrds - and the influence of the groups that Real Estate came up with, like his friends in Woods. What makes Magic Sign such unceasingly pleasant company, then, is the way it weaves this constellation of influence and artfulness into 10 songs that are lighter than air, deceptively simple, yet cumulatively, surprisingly moving"