As part of Fiery Furnaces, Eleanor Friedberger was the pop heart to her brother Matthew’s crazy, questing spirit, the two very different personalities often balancing out to produce brilliant albums Gallowsbird’s Bark and Blueberry Boat, often losing the thread of a concept and producing bizarre records like Rehearsing My Choir. On her own, Friedberger has matured as a song writer and singer to the point where her solo records Last Summer and Personal Record sounded like classic 70s singer-songwriter albums. Often piano led, songs sounded like they were influenced by Harry Nilsson and Joni Mitchell and told of Friedberger’s life and experiences as a musician in and around New York. This aspect isn’t lost when Friedberger plays live; ‘Other Boys’ is faithfully rendered as a girl-group inspired waltz, the singer a static presence at the microphone, ‘Stare at the Sun’ a terrific and breakneck guitar jam with Friedberger giving an intense middle-distance stare as she passionately delivers her story and ‘My Mistakes’ takes surf rock influences and marries them to a song that wouldn’t seem out of place on a latter-day Fiery Furnaces record.
The thing about seeing Eleanor Friedberger live is that she draws you into her lyrical world with consummate ease; it looks effortless but this is someone who works extremely hard to craft songs that keep the listener and the crowd involved until the very last.
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Two Door Cinema Club
