Eleanor Friedberger/Flickr
Eleanor Friedberger, whose drawling soulful vocals you may recognise from when she was one half of The Fiery Furnaces with her brother, Matthew, has just released her first debut album, Last Summer.
Transporting you to a world that falls in the no man’s land between folk, soul and pop, where Friedberger’s lyrics flow freely and unpredictably, building pleasingly cliche-free pictures and situations. Some tracks seem to play out more like a film than a pop record.
The vocals are rich and multi-faceted, combining a raspy softness that is intelligent, soulful, sometimes funny, yet always underpinned with a sense of melancholy.
From the awesome foot-tapping bass riff in Roosevelt Island to the soft hopefulness in Angel, and plenty to draw you in between – there is certainly variation and craft here. Not that the album is flawless. The inane repetition of the numbers 2010 in Glitter Gold Year verges on insufferable, and while I do think Friedberger’s voice has many enchanting qualities, in a steady listening of the album from start to finish there are moments when it starts to grate. Perhaps a little more variation would overcome this.
Overall, though, this is a fresh and promising debut as Friedberger the solo artist – it will be interesting to see what she will come up with in the future. A bohemian idol in the making? Perhaps.
Beat The Static 
Used to love the Fiery Furnaces, though they also had their annoying moments! Will try to give this a listen…