New View

AlbumJan 22 / 201611 songs, 45m 14s
Singer-Songwriter Indie Pop
Popular Highly Rated

Following the quietly great *Last Summer* and *Personal Record*, the former Fiery Furnace’s third solo album filters folksy \'60s- and \'70s-style rock (think Zombies or Bob Dylan) through the slacker brilliance of \'90s indie bands like Pavement. Wry, romantic, and written with enough offbeat detail to fill a Wes Anderson movie, *New View* captures the ins and outs of relationships in a voice that’s bittersweet (“Never Is a Long Time”), funny (“Cathy With the Curly Hair”), and, more often than not, both (“Sweetest Girl”).

7.8 / 10

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.

C

The Fiery Furnaces, indie rock’s sibling-duo answer to the noodling art songs of Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, split at the start of this decade. Since then, multi-instrumentalist, chief songwriter, and expert-level interview shit-talker Matthew Friedberger has focused on tossed-off quickies and admirably unlistenable…

Among midlife indie kids working a sidelong vision of classic-rock ecstasy, there aren’t many doing it with more grace or smarts than Eleanor Friedberger.

‘New View’ is the most self-assured realisation of Friedberger’s delicately eloquent musical talent.

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From the gliding guitar progression of He Didn’t Mention His Mother and the swelling Open Season, New View is a warm and rustic listen.

8 / 10

One of the few positives of the untimely demise (or semi-permanent hiatus) of the Fiery Furnaces has been the emergence of Eleanor Friedberg...

7.0 / 10

At first glance, the titles of Eleanor Friedberger's first two solo records provide context for her clever, knotted lyrics and oddball pop melodies.

7 / 10

A classic Seventies air possesses much of the material here in similarly effective fashion to Eleanor Friedberger’s previous offering,

The former Fiery Furnaces member opts for simplicity on her hook-laden third solo album

8 / 10

A rural relocation and some more traditional arrangements fail to blunt all of Friedberger’s quirks on her third solo outing

75 %

For an artist who rose to indie rock prominence with the Fiery Furnaces in part due to pushing boundaries through pseudo-prog song structure and instrumentation, Eleanor Friedberger’s solo albums have been pretty straightforward.

Album Reviews: Eleanor Friedberger - New View

3.6 / 5

Eleanor Friedberger - New View review: Today I'm frozen, but tomorrow I'll write about you.

9 / 10