William Dart takes a listen to Eleanor Friedberger's new album Rebound within the context of her career both as a solo artist and as one half of the brother and sister duo The Fiery Furnaces.
Eleanor Friedberger, Rebound cover image Photo: Frenchkiss Records
The double-F moniker of The Fiery Furnaces inevitably induces a flurry of alliteration. Here’s a band so easily described as frenetic, feisty, fidgety. And, maybe, such features were first and foremost what appealed to me when I came across their music, ten or more years ago.
If you ever wanted the sensation of experiencing a song from the within a piano itself then search no further than this slice of indie pop tango from their 2006 Bitter Tea album.
In fact, the brother and sister team of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger had already caught my ear a year before this. I’d been hooked by the swervings and swirlings of their previous CD, Rehearsing the Choir, a tribute to their 83-year-old grandmother.
It’s a dizzying and affectionate jumble of past and present, played out in what sound like a keyboard showroom. With Matthew speaking for grandmother Olga and Eleanor singing her thoughts, the past is suddenly the here and now.
The Fiery Furnaces last put out an album in 2009 and they've been in hiatus since 2011. Since then both siblings have moved on with solo careers.
From her very first solo album, titled Last Summer, way back now in 2011, Eleanor Friedberger had indeed moved on. These ten tracks didn’t depend on the shock of musical U-turns and style-skidding, although there is some dramatic distraction on their instrumental borders. These were songs with follow-through and, sometimes, compulsive narratives.
There’s some sly eroticism too in the track "One-Month Marathon". This casual pop shuffle is about much more than just confessions of nakedness. Ironies are all around and sometimes disarmingly literal, as Friedberger confesses a cellphone is needed to locate a piece of sought-after nineteenth-century architecture.
Eleanor Friedberger took a few musical sidetrips in the seven years following this debut album. She was just one sparkle in a veritable star-cluster (Jack White, Norah Jones, Sparks, Loudon Wainwright ...) collaborating with Beck on his 2012 Song Reader album. A project so ambitious for its composer that he published each song is an exclusive limited edition portfolio
Friedberger’s task was to voice the same line of chinoiserie that was so potently nostalgic back in the 1920s and 30s. Don’t expect xylophone pentatonics though, when she spins the tale of "Old Shanghai", introduced so atmospherically by Matthew Rosen’s organ, quickly locking into the timeless theme of the eternal tourist.
Two years later, Friedberger joined up with some of her fellow artists from the Frenchkiss label to take part in a collection of unexpected cover songs, an album called Under the Covers.
She went back to the 70s, to the flowery call to arms that was Marc Bolan’s "Children of the Revolution".
Eleanor Friedberger’s new and fourth album, titled Rebound, doesn’t try for the surface gleam that you heard on that T Rex outing. In fact, with its unpredictable phrasing and asides, some tracks remind one of her Fiery Furnaces days, without the sometimes agro clangour of keyboard.
The title of the album might seem to suggest that Friedberger is coming out of some darkness, a darkness that has perhaps been hinted at in her 2016 release, New View.
In fact, the title comes from the name of a club in Athens, Greece, frequented by the singer on a trip to explore her own Aegean heritage. The 1980s time warp of this dark and jangly meeting place was a perfect inspiration for her new album’s sounds and energies.
There’s a political context here, too. Perhaps as much as a rebound, the new album is an escape. A Byronic escape to the isles of Greece from Trump’s America.
For a time she’d wanted it all to be harsh and angry, to sound disorientated. But, instead of following her initial temptation of loud guitar and feedback, she found other solutions.
A song like It’s Hard is very much locked into the halcyon days of the early to mid-eighties, right down to arms swinging in time to one of those unknown tunes she must have heard in that Athens nightspot.
Listen to these songs and more by clicking on the "Listen" link at the top of the page.
Music Details
'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)
'I'm In No Mood' (M Friedberger) – The Fiery Furnaces
Bitter Tea
(Fat Possum)
'Though Let's Be Fair' (M Friedberger) – The Fiery Furnaces
Rehearsing the Choir
(Rough Trade)
'I'm Going Away' (E Friedberger) – The Fiery Furnaces feat. Matthew Friedberger
Take Me Round Again
(Thrill Jockey)
'I'm Going Away' (E Friedberger) – The Fiery Furnaces feat. Eleanor Friedberger
Take Me Round Again
(Thrill Jockey)
'Even in the Rain' (E Friedberger) – The Fiery Furnaces feat. Eleanor Friedberger
Take Me Round Again
(Thrill Jockey)
'One Month Marathon' (E Friedberger) – Eleanor Friedberger
Last Summer
(Merge)
'Old Shanghai' (Hansen) – Eleanor Friedberger
Beck Song Reader
(Capitol)
'Children of the Revolution' (Bolan) – Eleanor Friedberger
Under the Covers
(Frenchkiss)
'A Long Walk' (E Friedberger) – Eleanor Friedberger
New View
(Frenchkiss)
'It's Hard' (E Friedberger) – Eleanor Friedberger
Rebound
(Frenchkiss)
'The Letter' (E Friedberger) – Eleanor Friedberger
Rebound
(Frenchkiss)
'Make Me A Song' (E Friedberger) – Eleanor Friedberger
Rebound
(Frenchkiss)
