| ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER — REBOUND (4 May 2018) |
Eleanor Friedberger — Rebound (May 4th, 2018)
♣ This Was: New View (January 22, 2016): NEW VIEW IS BEST APPRECIATED WITH A DEEP AND UNHURRIED ENGAGEMENT, AS THE FULL ALBUM IN FULL FIDELITY OFFERS MANY DISTINCTIVE PLEASURES.
Born: September 2, 1976 in Oak Park, Illinois
Location: New York City
Album release: January 22, 2016
Record Label: Frenchkiss Records
Genre: Indie, Alternative
Duration: 45:14
Tracks:
01. He Didn’t Mention His Mother 4:00
02. Open Season 4:43
03. Sweetest Girl 3:01
04. Your Word 3:42
05. Because I Asked You 3:44
06. Never Is A Long Time 3:26
07. Cathy With The Curly Hair 3:26
08. Two Versions Of Tomorrow 5:47
09. All Known Things 5:07
10. Does Turquoise Work? 2:29
Review
by Hazel Cills, JANUARY 20 2016; Score: 7.8
♣ Eleanor Friedberger’s solo music has long made New York City its stage, but she moved to upstate New York to write her third solo album New View. The record’s no~fuss, featherlight acoustic pop songs weave into one another seamlessly, Friedberger’s melodies familiar and redolent of artists like Harry Nilsson and Neil Young without playing like nostalgia.
♣ This past October, Eleanor Friedberger released “False Alphabet City,” a groovy one~off single all about the “city that betrayed her.” Like many musicians before her, Friedberger has long made New York City her favorite stage. Her songs, which roll with a bouncy ‘70s pop nostalgia, are peppered with stories of getting sick riding the Coney Island Cyclone, snapping pictures in front of a sweet Lamborghini on Manhattan Avenue, and the small, poignant act of muting Taxi TV. But with a bitter edge in its tone, “False Alphabet City” played like an earnest goodbye, to the noise, to whoever hurt her, to the false glamour of urban spaces. So after over a decade of Brooklyn dwelling, Friedberger moved to upstate New York and wrote her third solo album New View. And while Personal Record was populated with energized, electric rock songs and party~hopping anthems, New View’s territory is far more easygoing, more traditional in its structure. The record’s no~fuss, featherlight acoustic pop songs weave into one another seamlessly, Friedberger’s melodies familiar and redolent of artists like Harry Nilsson and Neil Young without playing like nostalgia. But even if New View’s overall aesthetic may pair nicely with your laziest summer Sunday morning, there’s an undercurrent of serious melancholia in Friedberger’s writing here, setting it apart tonally from her previous two records.
♣ What’s palpable on New View is a sense of loneliness. You might even say hermitry, as Friedberger’s writing here suggests, at times, a mindset distanced from physical society. The hazy “Open Season” plays like Friedberger writing a letter to a long~lost friend or lover whose whereabouts she doesn’t know. “Is it freezing over there? I’m opening a tree museum, that’s my new hobby,” she sings, seemingly poking fun at how settled her life has become. On “Cathy With the Curly Hair,” a bopping, synth~laden outlier, Friedberger goes through the calendar months recounting memories of an unraveled relationship. In a year when catching up on an old friend’s whereabouts is as easy as Googling their name, New View’s ponderings might seem anachronistic, too reliant on in~person communication. But perhaps we all know by now that loneliness can be just as prevalent in a hyper~connected present.
♣ An interesting thread throughout New View’s equal parts wistful and frustrated tales of breakups is how often Friedberger explicitly refers to writing about them. She mentions that she knows she’ll write about someone, to the experience of listening her own songs when she has nothing more to say, to her own stage fright. On “Never Is a Long Time,” Friedberger invokes the cynical energy of Lindsey Buckingham’s Tusk cuts, particularly “Walk a Thin Line,” as she sings of a relationship’s undoing in an uncharacteristically low and trembling voice, a single drum banging haphazardly in the background. “We are less than nothing, nothing is a perfect rhyme,” she sings.
♣ In the past, Friedberger has loaded her music with little pedestrian anecdotes that feel specific to her songwriting, bits of wordplay and vivid descriptions of acquaintances and locations. Sometimes she gets there on New View, particularly on “Does Turquoise Work?” and “All Known Things” which includes kissing in a mausoleum, but the album is largely devoid of these lyrical quirks. In their place is a kind of self~aware storytelling that plays like Friedberger is letting us in to a very personal process. At times New View can seem like a concept record detailing Friedberger’s ambivalence about her main gift: spinning fragile memories and feelings into accessible songs. ♣ https://pitchfork.com/
Also:
by Lindsay Zoladz; JUNE 5 2013; Score: 8.1
♣ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18096-eleanor-friedberger-personal-record/
by Joshua Love; JULY 12 2011; Score: 7.9
♣ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15623-last-summer/
Website: http://www.eleanorfriedberger.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eleanor.friedberger.official/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EleanorOnly
Solo:
♣ Last Summer (2011)
♣ Personal Record (2013)
♣ New View (2016)
♣ Rebound (2018)
ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER — REBOUND (4 May 2018)
♣ Eleanor said in a statement: “After a month in Athens I asked my friend, the Greek musician Σtella, ‘What’s one thing I have to do before I leave?’ After some long and careful consideration she smiled and said, ‘you have to go to Rebound. It’s a time warp; kind of an 80s goth disco where everyone does the chicken dance; you’ll love it… but it’s only open on Saturdays after 3:00 AM’.”
Album release: 4 May 2018
Record Label: Frenchkiss Records
Duration: 40:05
Tracks:
01 My Jesus Phase 3:46
02 The Letter 3:48
03 Everything 3:51
04 In Between Stars 3:29
05 Make Me a Song 5:32
06 Nice to Be Nowhere 4:51
07 It’s Hard 3:35
08 Are We Good? 3:52
09 Showy Early Spring 2:55
10 Rule of Action 4:26
℗ 2018 Frenchkiss Records
by Braudie Blais~Billie, FEBRUARY 14 2018
♣ Singer~songwriter Eleanor Friedberger has announced a new record, Rebound. It’s out May 4 via Frenchkiss. She’s also shared its first track. Listen to “In Between Stars” below. Rebound, which follows 2016’s New View, was recorded with producer Clemens Knieper. The record was inspired by Friedberger’s time in Greece in 2016. “While friends back home were suddenly becoming politically activated for the first time, it was exciting to be living in a city where protest marches occur on a weekly, or sometimes daily basis,” said Friedberger, who is half~Greek, in a press release.
♣ The album’s name came from a late~night “80s goth disco” in Athens. “Rebound proved to be a revelation in terms of finding the sound and energy for my fourth album,” Friedberger said in the press release. “The club was very dark and despite the no smoking signs, like everywhere in Athens, it was very smoky. The ‘chicken dance’ [my friend] Stella mentioned was a solitary one. I copied the slouchy strut, moving back and forth in line, swinging my arms in time to the music that at first sounded like Joy Division or maybe the Cure, but never revealed itself — one could only assume it to be knock~off by an unknown Baltic band. It was alienating and exhilarating.”
♣ Read about Friedberger’s “Because I Asked You” in Pitchfork’s “12 Pitchfork Staffers on Their Favorite Lyrics of 2016.” ♣ https://pitchfork.com/
| ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER — REBOUND (4 May 2018) |
Location: New York City
Album release: January 22, 2016
Record Label: Frenchkiss Records
Genre: Indie, Alternative
Duration: 45:14
Tracks:
01. He Didn’t Mention His Mother 4:00
02. Open Season 4:43
03. Sweetest Girl 3:01
04. Your Word 3:42
05. Because I Asked You 3:44
06. Never Is A Long Time 3:26
07. Cathy With The Curly Hair 3:26
08. Two Versions Of Tomorrow 5:47
09. All Known Things 5:07
10. Does Turquoise Work? 2:29
Review
by Hazel Cills, JANUARY 20 2016; Score: 7.8
♣ Eleanor Friedberger’s solo music has long made New York City its stage, but she moved to upstate New York to write her third solo album New View. The record’s no~fuss, featherlight acoustic pop songs weave into one another seamlessly, Friedberger’s melodies familiar and redolent of artists like Harry Nilsson and Neil Young without playing like nostalgia.
♣ This past October, Eleanor Friedberger released “False Alphabet City,” a groovy one~off single all about the “city that betrayed her.” Like many musicians before her, Friedberger has long made New York City her favorite stage. Her songs, which roll with a bouncy ‘70s pop nostalgia, are peppered with stories of getting sick riding the Coney Island Cyclone, snapping pictures in front of a sweet Lamborghini on Manhattan Avenue, and the small, poignant act of muting Taxi TV. But with a bitter edge in its tone, “False Alphabet City” played like an earnest goodbye, to the noise, to whoever hurt her, to the false glamour of urban spaces. So after over a decade of Brooklyn dwelling, Friedberger moved to upstate New York and wrote her third solo album New View. And while Personal Record was populated with energized, electric rock songs and party~hopping anthems, New View’s territory is far more easygoing, more traditional in its structure. The record’s no~fuss, featherlight acoustic pop songs weave into one another seamlessly, Friedberger’s melodies familiar and redolent of artists like Harry Nilsson and Neil Young without playing like nostalgia. But even if New View’s overall aesthetic may pair nicely with your laziest summer Sunday morning, there’s an undercurrent of serious melancholia in Friedberger’s writing here, setting it apart tonally from her previous two records.
♣ What’s palpable on New View is a sense of loneliness. You might even say hermitry, as Friedberger’s writing here suggests, at times, a mindset distanced from physical society. The hazy “Open Season” plays like Friedberger writing a letter to a long~lost friend or lover whose whereabouts she doesn’t know. “Is it freezing over there? I’m opening a tree museum, that’s my new hobby,” she sings, seemingly poking fun at how settled her life has become. On “Cathy With the Curly Hair,” a bopping, synth~laden outlier, Friedberger goes through the calendar months recounting memories of an unraveled relationship. In a year when catching up on an old friend’s whereabouts is as easy as Googling their name, New View’s ponderings might seem anachronistic, too reliant on in~person communication. But perhaps we all know by now that loneliness can be just as prevalent in a hyper~connected present.
♣ An interesting thread throughout New View’s equal parts wistful and frustrated tales of breakups is how often Friedberger explicitly refers to writing about them. She mentions that she knows she’ll write about someone, to the experience of listening her own songs when she has nothing more to say, to her own stage fright. On “Never Is a Long Time,” Friedberger invokes the cynical energy of Lindsey Buckingham’s Tusk cuts, particularly “Walk a Thin Line,” as she sings of a relationship’s undoing in an uncharacteristically low and trembling voice, a single drum banging haphazardly in the background. “We are less than nothing, nothing is a perfect rhyme,” she sings.
♣ In the past, Friedberger has loaded her music with little pedestrian anecdotes that feel specific to her songwriting, bits of wordplay and vivid descriptions of acquaintances and locations. Sometimes she gets there on New View, particularly on “Does Turquoise Work?” and “All Known Things” which includes kissing in a mausoleum, but the album is largely devoid of these lyrical quirks. In their place is a kind of self~aware storytelling that plays like Friedberger is letting us in to a very personal process. At times New View can seem like a concept record detailing Friedberger’s ambivalence about her main gift: spinning fragile memories and feelings into accessible songs. ♣ https://pitchfork.com/
Also:
by Lindsay Zoladz; JUNE 5 2013; Score: 8.1
♣ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18096-eleanor-friedberger-personal-record/
by Joshua Love; JULY 12 2011; Score: 7.9
♣ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15623-last-summer/
Website: http://www.eleanorfriedberger.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eleanor.friedberger.official/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EleanorOnly
Solo:
♣ Last Summer (2011)
♣ Personal Record (2013)
♣ New View (2016)
♣ Rebound (2018)
ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER — REBOUND (4 May 2018)
♣ Eleanor said in a statement: “After a month in Athens I asked my friend, the Greek musician Σtella, ‘What’s one thing I have to do before I leave?’ After some long and careful consideration she smiled and said, ‘you have to go to Rebound. It’s a time warp; kind of an 80s goth disco where everyone does the chicken dance; you’ll love it… but it’s only open on Saturdays after 3:00 AM’.”
Album release: 4 May 2018
Record Label: Frenchkiss Records
Duration: 40:05
Tracks:
01 My Jesus Phase 3:46
02 The Letter 3:48
03 Everything 3:51
04 In Between Stars 3:29
05 Make Me a Song 5:32
06 Nice to Be Nowhere 4:51
07 It’s Hard 3:35
08 Are We Good? 3:52
09 Showy Early Spring 2:55
10 Rule of Action 4:26
℗ 2018 Frenchkiss Records
by Braudie Blais~Billie, FEBRUARY 14 2018
♣ Singer~songwriter Eleanor Friedberger has announced a new record, Rebound. It’s out May 4 via Frenchkiss. She’s also shared its first track. Listen to “In Between Stars” below. Rebound, which follows 2016’s New View, was recorded with producer Clemens Knieper. The record was inspired by Friedberger’s time in Greece in 2016. “While friends back home were suddenly becoming politically activated for the first time, it was exciting to be living in a city where protest marches occur on a weekly, or sometimes daily basis,” said Friedberger, who is half~Greek, in a press release.
♣ The album’s name came from a late~night “80s goth disco” in Athens. “Rebound proved to be a revelation in terms of finding the sound and energy for my fourth album,” Friedberger said in the press release. “The club was very dark and despite the no smoking signs, like everywhere in Athens, it was very smoky. The ‘chicken dance’ [my friend] Stella mentioned was a solitary one. I copied the slouchy strut, moving back and forth in line, swinging my arms in time to the music that at first sounded like Joy Division or maybe the Cure, but never revealed itself — one could only assume it to be knock~off by an unknown Baltic band. It was alienating and exhilarating.”
♣ Read about Friedberger’s “Because I Asked You” in Pitchfork’s “12 Pitchfork Staffers on Their Favorite Lyrics of 2016.” ♣ https://pitchfork.com/