Love Letters In Motion

Eleanor Friedberger “False Alphabet City”

“False Alphabet City” is basically a song in which Eleanor Friedberger deals with the frustration of having nostalgia for a version of a neighborhood that doesn’t really exist anymore, and feeling like maybe you don’t really belong in that space anymore. This could easily be a more maudlin or angry song, but the feeling of the music is very relaxed, and at least to me feels like going home. Everything sounds familiar – the shape of things, the sense of space, even if the details are off. It sounds like a much looser version of the aesthetic The Fiery Furnaces had on Widow City and I’m Going Away, with the more rigid rhythmic structures swapped out for groovier bass parts and a lot more hi-hat. You can’t really go back but you can get close enough sometimes.

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