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Eleanor Friedberger, Icewater, Nicholas Mallis & the Borealis


Even with the weirdo certifications from her Fiery Furnaces days nearing expiration, Eleanor Friedberger’s solo work is arrestingly straightforward. Her simple song structures and self-conscious ’70s melodies are radically accessible in comparison to the Furnaces’ vast idiosyncrasies. In place of the eccentricity is a discretion that drones louder than a vintage synth, more trenchant than any oblique reference to a 16th Century British politician. Her latest, New View, is chiseled and sculpted from a big slab of heartache, rather than built up from piles of overindulged whims. What’s left is Friedberger at her most personable. Icewater (New View’s backing band) and Nicholas Mallis & The Borealis open.

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