ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER is hard on herself. “I don’t see myself as succeeding,” she says. “I see myself as persevering.”
Friedberger is perhaps still best known as one half of Dadaist pop duo the Fiery Furnaces, which she started with her brother Matthew in 2000. The Furnaces went on hiatus in 2011, but that hasn’t stopped Eleanor from releasing three solo records—most recently, this year’s New View.
The album kicks off with the warm sound of tape rewinding. That’s because the whole thing was recorded live to tape, a shift that parallels Friedberger’s recent move from Brooklyn to New York’s slower-paced Hudson Valley. Her new album evokes sun-kissed nostalgia with the throwback feeling of a live band.
Friedberger continues to move away from the angular, keyboard-based art-pop of the Fiery Furnaces. On New View she explores her passion for the easy-going tempos of ’70s folk-rock. “That’s the music I like the most,” she says, listing Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Yoko Ono as ongoing inspirations. Warm Hammond organ permeates “A Long Walk,” the album’s wild coda, calling to mind Dylan’s classic “Like a Rolling Stone,” with guitar work reminiscent of the legendary Mike Bloomfield.