Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A New View is always welcome, it might disappoint, it could possible enrage the status quo, it could even blossom and flower and become the picture in which clarity is offered down the line, the healthy regard for the alternative view.

For Eleanor Friedberger the New View is much more than a set of songs in which to capture a mood, a reflection of all that she holds as truth and belief, it is a an outlook that is infectious, a vision in which the American songstress sheds light on the interaction of relationships and their dynamic and how in some cases the world can turn when a different path is chosen unexpectedly; when you fall for the person that you shouldn’t and yet an inkling of perspective comes out of the blue.

Although Ms. Friedberger has been around for some time, it feels that perhaps this side of the vast ocean her work has been only pleasantly received passed judgement upon with more than a hint of a smile in the living rooms of Britain’s normally discerning outlook. That may be the illusion, however deep down the songs that Ms. Friedberger produces are full of wit, charm and an elegance that really the U.K. would normally fall desperately in love with. It is in the art of the whimsical, the capricious observance that blends itself to the day to day that the writer and musician find herself holding court and with absolute style in New View.

There is much to be valued in a smile that might have gone unnoticed, that might have been missed in the gloom of everyday living, it is of value to those that listen to catch the grin of circumstance, of ironic misdemeanour clothed in beauty in which the album revels and takes shape and in tracks such as Sweetest Girl, the wonderful Because I asked You, the sensational Cathy With The Curly Hair and the album closer A Long Walk, Ms. Friedberger and her band capture life at its most heartfelt, most quirky, and it is a capturing of the heart that returns the smile back across the waves and urges more from the quiet American.

A New View is an enjoyable feast of music that never once lets the listener down, the smile is far too important to be seen dissolve.

Ian D. Hall