Eleanor Friedberger (of the Fiery Furnaces)

I like when she sings "I'm gonna wrap the night (?) around your neck, slice off your head, daddy"

Like Hurting I heard "you promised to take me to the end of the 7th grade", and thought that was a good lyric at first.

I've been trying in vain to place what album the cover reminds me of. A little bit of The River, but there's also something about the font across the top. Paging Alex in NYC...

http://0.tqn.com/d/classicrock/1/0/y/U/springsteen_river.jpg

Still really loving this album. I thought my days of caring about anything Fiery Furnaces were long gone.

listening to this now.

honestly i kinda wanted to like the fiery furnaces but everything i heard drove me nuts.

anyway, this album is really knocking me out! such good songs but there's a certain subtle eccentricity about it.

the vocal phrasing on "roosevelt island" really reminds me of something

i interviewed her a few years ago (2005?) and asked her about her phrasing--i think she said her fave singers were bob dylan and joe strummer.

the vocal phrasing on "roosevelt island" really reminds me of something

of how she really is...?

I love this.

the vocal phrasing on "roosevelt island" really reminds me of something

dan bejar?

This album is such a little gem.

I love this album! I filmed one of her songs with my crummy old camera at the Rough Trade West shop a few weeks ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPjHXO4GWOI

I liked her more than I expected to when I saw her opening for Wild Flag. A couple people express extreme hate for her over on that thread. Her retro sensibilities and phrasing can be an acquired taste

what about her boring songs and indie voice?

I'll bite. I can't help you with the "indie voice," whatever that is - but she's writing really interesting lyrics; she nails what Tom Waits called "putting a zip code" on her songs; they're packed full of really evocative details (lyrically and musically, I think). I mean, it seems pretty clear that the Fiery Furnaces really rub some people the wrong way, but Jesus - they/she can't be accused of doing anything really all that run of the mill.

I think it means her voice isn't supported by any major label money.

I wanted to love this album because a friend whose opinions and mine coincide more often than not, but after seven or eight listens the melodies sounded undistinguished. Nothing really stood out.

i haven't listened to this album too much, but when i do i like it quite a bit! moreso than the fiery furnaces stuff i've heard.

tylerw otm, I've tried and tried with Fiery Furnaces but was never able to really understand why so many people adored them. This album, otoh, is wonderful. And I think Alfred is offtm wrt to "undistinguished melodies", there are great ones all over this thing!

This is one of my favorite albums of the year.

^

yall seriously pretending not to know what i mean by indie voice?

love, love this album but it's no Fiery Furnaces

yall seriously pretending not to know what i mean by indie voice?

In the most sinister place in my heart, of course I do. I'm not sure it works here because Friedberger projects so much damn warmth. However, her voice doesn't enliven these songs, most of which just sit there. The only one I can recall unprompted is "I Won't Fall Apart On You Tonight," one of the more generic ones.

Inn Of The Seventh Ray is one of the best songs of this year.

yall seriously pretending not to know what i mean by indie voice?

Genuinely don't know. I mean, I assumed you meant a kind of "affectedly disaffected" thing or something, but that objectively doesn't apply to this album.

http://cdn4.pitchfork.com/news/49793/92c6f0ea.jpg

Personal Record is the second solo album released by Eleanor Friedberger, most notably for being vocalist in the band The Fiery Furnaces with her brother Matthew Friedberger. The album will be released on 4 June 2013 on the Merge Records record label.

1 I Don't Want to Bother You
2 When I Knew
3 I'll Never Be Happy Again
4 Stare at the Sun
5 Echo or Encore
6 My Own World
7 Tomorrow Tomorrow
8 You'll Never Know Me
9 I Am the Past
10 She's a Mirror
11 Other Boys
12 Singing Time

Does Merge say if she sings this one in an indie voice? J/k
I like the cover. She's got a new 7" out with track 3 on the A side and a Jimmie Dale Gilmore cover on the b-side

Also how has no-one used that title before?? That's great.

love the cover/ title. the bits in the video teaser sound really good too.

You know, I like this new tune a great deal (more than the debut ) and I'm stoked that her solo career is going well, but FFS GIMME SOME FIERY FURNACES MUSIC. Matt's solo stuff sucks and it annoys me that the band isn't come up in their solo interviews more

am I wrong to feel this way?

i liked last summer more than any fiery furnaces in quite a while but agree that it is odd the status of the band doesn't even come up

http://www.splicetoday.com/music/three-in-grown-nose-hairs

I really love this new record.

This is even better than Last Summer

Never been a fan of her band, but "Stare at the Sun" is absolutely fantastic. Maybe I've just really got Scott Miller on the brain lately in the wake of his death, but this track sounds exactly like a Donnette Thayer Game Theory track.

This is even better than Last Summer

― Van Horn Street, Saturday, June 8, 2013 5:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this. I didn't think she could one-up that one, but she did. This plays, to me, like a late-period Moz album if late-period Moz albums were actually great instead of mediocre and forgettable.

Haha, so how it is late-period Moz-like then?

I dunno - something about the first three or four songs especially remind me, melodically and lyrically, of Moz. Also, titles like "I'll Never Be Happy Again" and "You'll Never Know Me" sound like Morrissey titles. And "Tomorrow Tomorrow" and "My Own World" inhabit that weird Southpaw Grammar era where Moz wasn't rocking, exactly, but was certainly more assertive than on records like Vauxhall and I.

is this out?

as of tuesday of last week.

Maybe I've just really got Scott Miller on the brain lately in the wake of his death, but this track sounds exactly like a Donnette Thayer Game Theory track.

^^^ on this. This album is a keeper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74-iyAoMa6Y

Thinking of giving this another go - does it have legs?

OK thats it. I am committing to listening to a song on You Tube

it's a very good album

I keep expecting this album to go stale but it's just too damm playfull.

I like it but I'm still not sucked in by it - her first stuck with me a lot more.

Dunno why this record didn't blow up

Bought it today, think it's great. Was never that into Fiery Furnaces.

I'm starting to prefer the solo records than the FF ones. I am having a lot of fun with the FF records but her solo albums somehow speak to me more. I wonder if I'm the only one.

Personal Record is lovely, but the only solo record I've heard. It's going to be high in my poll for the year. Was listening again to it today and it's gorgeous.

Hmm, things get "interesting" when the interviewer asks her about NYC

"Are We Good?" another standout track

i listen to this album all the time. i do love it. there is a comfort listening to her music that i get that i don't really get from a lot of other newer things today.