Eleanor Friedberger is part of the indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 duo The Fiery Furnaces

The Fiery Furnaces

The Fiery Furnaces are a U.S. indie rock band formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York. The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. The siblings are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago.- Band biography :...

 with her brother Matthew Friedberger

Matthew Friedberger

Matthew Friedberger is half of the indie rock duo The Fiery Furnaces. In the band he contributes the majority of the instrumentation, writes most of the songs and lyrics and occasionally sings...

. In the band she contributes the majority of the vocals both on record and during their live performances. Eleanor grew up singing with her grandmother, Olga Sarantos and family in a Greek Orthodox Church. She previously dated Alex Kapranos

Alex Kapranos

Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley , commonly known as Alex Kapranos, is a United Kingdom-based musician who is the lead singer and the guitarist of the Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand.-Early life:...

 of the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand (band)

Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...

.

In April 2011, Merge Records announced that they would be releasing Friedberger's first solo album, Last Summer, on July 12, 2011. Upon its release, it received very positive reviews, garnering an 81 out of 100 (universal acclaim) on Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

. The Tune

The Tune

The Tune is an animated film by American filmmaker Bill Plympton.-Plot summary:Del, a hard-working songwriter, is trying to write the perfect song for his slimeball boss, Mr. Mega, so he can keep his job and his girlfriend Didi...

said that the album "simply refuses to be empirically classified or explained," but called it "absolutely essential".