Update (06.16.08):
Listen to (and pre-order) Regina’s new CD!
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Original Post (04.19.08):
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In the interest of sharing my musical tastes with you, I thought I would create this small tribute to Regina Spektor. Hopefully it will give you a strong impression of Regina’s music and persona.
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While I have come to know Regina’s music very well, it’s fair to say that I’m relatively new to it. A friend of mine played her latest album “Begin to Hope” for me in early 2007. I remember feeling drawn to her music for many of the same reasons others liked “Begin to Hope” – the tunes are catchy, her vocals are beautiful, and of course, her lyrics are… well, really original (and sometimes just weird). The friend who exposed me to Regina’s work especially enjoyed “On the Radio,” which starts out with the following:
This is how it works
It feels a little worse
Than when we drove our hearse
Right through that screaming crowd
So yeah, that was enough for me. I immediately went to Regina’s web site and was pleased to find that all five of her albums were available for listening. As a member of the Napster generation, who would not be as passionate about music as I am today had illegal downloading not been a part of my life, I embraced Regina’s willingness as an artist to share her excellent work. After a few weeks of listening through the web site, I bought “Begin to Hope” and “Soviet Kitsch,” and later, “Songs” and “11:11″ – that’s right, in reverse chronological order. While I enjoyed her latest album, I prefer the raw creative energy of her previous albums. And for that matter, having seen her perform live (Sokol Underground in Omaha), I have no choice but to believe that a dish of Spektor is best served live, unscripted, and uncensored.
In his review of “Begin to Hope,” Michael Frauenhofer writes, more clearly and creatively than I could, about Regina as an artist:
“Over the course of countless live performances, two independent albums, and a major-label debut, she has earned herself a reputation as one of the most unique, quirky, experimental, and downright transcendent singer-songwriters working today. She plays piano with the skill of years of classical training, but her compositions are distinctly different, idiosyncratic and human, and she is a consummate performer. She can build emotion with a single vocal flourish like no other, and her sometimes startlingly personal musical sketches often travel surprising distances as they twist and turn. She’s come a way since her recklessly freewheeling early recordings, which featured everything from stretches of complete atonality to manic bursts of rapping and guttural singing, but rather than trade in her fierce independence as her profile has grown, she’s instead learned to control it, to twist it into what look at first glance like beautiful, conventional pop songs but gradually spiral into whole new realms.”
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CBS Report on Regina
“Ain’t No Cover” in Omaha – You can see the back of my head – pretty exciting.
“Bobbing for Apples” – Live at Lollapalooza
“Fidelity” – Official Music Video
“Baby Jesus” – Live at Bonnaroo
“Real Love,” John Lennon Cover – TV Spot
“Survival Guide to Soviet Kitsch,” Parts I & II – Official Music Video
(Includes “Carbon Monoxide,” “Ode to Divorce,” “Us,” and “Ghost of Corporate Future”)
“Poor Little Rich Boy” – Live Performance
Regina on Stage – Live Performance
