Chic Beats
Eleanor Friedberger
TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DARIAN ZAHEDI
HAIR: WHITNEY THOMAS / STYLIST: ELIZABETH PARKS KIBBEY
MAKEUP: HEATHER CVAR / PHOTO ASSISTANT: NIK MASSEY
At a time when most female singer-songwriters perform as alter unreleased material allowed her to flesh out a more rollicking,
egos, Eleanor Friedberger is simply, refreshingly herself. And full sound from the get-go. “By the time I came home,” she says,
that’s just the way her fans like it. Having spent the last decade “I knew exactly what I wanted the songs to sound like.”
She reunited with Last Summer producer Eric Broucek (the
fronting the indie-rock institution The Fiery Furnaces (currently
on hiatus) with her brother Matthew, in 2011 she emerged as a DFA-trained emerging talent whose clients include !!!, Hercules
formidable solo artist with Last Summer, a thoughtfully crafted and Love Affair, and Jonny Pierce) to expand upon the warm, textale of memory and place couched in the organic pop of her ’70s tured atmosphere of their first collaboration. Tracking began in
idols. Instantly, Friedberger established herself as a modern-day fall 2012 with a week at Plantain Studios, the West Village home
heir to the tradition of Donovan, Todd Rundgren, Ronnie Lane, of DFA. To Friedberger’s favored electric pianos and classic-rock
and their ilk – those known for warm, nuanced, timeless songs. guitars, they added a menagerie that included an upright bass,
No gimmicks necessary.
an alto flute, a bass clarinet, and even a portative organ. (That’s
The title of Friedberger’s sophomore album is Personal Record, a device made of several recorders and a bellows in a frame that
and it is, in a sense. Personal, that is. But it’s not personal in the looks like a wooden castle… or like Howl’s Moving Castle.)
way of, say, a coming-of-age record or a diary about the past, as
Production then resumed at Broucek’s home studio in the
Last Summer is. Many of the songs seem to be about love, or love Los Angeles hills, where the rest of the record was completed
lost, but whether any of the experience is hers or someone else’s, in just ten days. As the songs filled out, Friedberger went fullshe isn’t saying. “It’s not as specific a narrative this time,” she out in immersing herself in her romantic vision of that city. “I
says. “There’s a universality to it.” So incisive are the lyrics, in was just listening to Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young, driving
fact, that Friedberger’s bassist incorrectly assumed that two of around in a borrowed Prius,” she says. “Walking along Point
the songs were about him. “I loved that,” she says. “I want him Dume, playing tennis at Griffith Park… I ate hippie food every
to feel like the songs are about him. I want you to feel like the day. Lots of lentils.”
songs are about you.”
The sun-warmed languor of the West Coast and its golden
The term “personal record” also refers to an athlete’s best, age of rock’n roll shines through in Personal Record. It’s the aural
and the double entendre is apt. An intense decade-plus of tour- equivalent of an afternoon jaunt up the PCH in an orange BMW
ing and recording has burnished Friedberger’s voice and imbued 2002, fist pumping into the wind. “When I Knew” and “Stare at
her songwriting with newfound depth; there’s a maturity and the Sun” rock out like the Furnaces’ finest, but with that unmismellifluousness to this outing that feels downright epic. It was takable Eleanor gracefulness. “Echo or Encore” is a lilting love
always the Eleanor-penned songs that gave the Furnaces’ albums ballad underlaid with a bossa nova beat. “I Am the Past” evokes
their most poignant and graceful moments, especially in later the mystical side of the Me Decade with meandering bass clariwork like I’m Going Away. Last Summer took that promise into net and a balls-out flute solo (seriously). Though Friedberger
full flower; Personal Record “is part of the same growth process,” may harbor a bit of a ’70s fetish, there’s an idiosyncrasy and
she says. Faced with a six-month gap between the completion of intimacy to her music that’s undeniably modern. Above all, it’s
Last Summer and its release and accompanying tour