Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer | Album preview

The Fiery Furnaces never said they would make things easy. Nine major releases over the course of six years would be tough for anyone to process, let alone from a group as willfully challenging as the zigzag Furnaces. Perhaps that explains the Furnaces’ relative silence since 2009, like pausing a New Yorker subscription to catch up on back issues.

Perhaps it also explains the decision to break that silence with Eleanor Friedberger’s unassuming solo debut Last Summer, an album of quirky but largely accessible pop. It makes things easy for once, slightly reminiscent of the Fiery Furnaces but minus brother Matthew Friedberger’s manic vision and short-attention-span scribbling. Songs such as “Inn of the Seventh Ray,” “Scenes from Bensonhurst,” “Roosevelt Island” and “Owl’s Head Park” are steeped in New York sights and places (the Oak Park native lives there these days), but Friedberger’s verbose lyrics lend the tracks the detailed if elliptical personality of torn-out diary pages, each set to spare melodies that typically make the most out of simple electric piano or gently strummed guitar.

It doesn’t take much to make a good pop song, but at her best Friedberger sneaks in great ones, like “I Won’t Fall Apart on You Tonight” or “Heaven,” subtle songs with oddball qualities and big heart that stick around.

Friedberger hits the Hideout Wednesday 20.