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Regina Spektor
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Begin To Hope
Sire Records
Release: 6/13/2006
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Rated:
Review by:
Jonathan Shipley
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So, imagine if Tori Amos was a sexy Jewish woman. Now,
imagine Fiona Apple as a, uh, Russian man. They have a
romantic tryst in a tavern in Russia. Their love child? Regina
Spektor. Quirky, eclectic, extremely personal music - that's
what Spektor plays and this Amos/Apple quasi-mix with hints
of blues, jazz and synagogues is what one can hear time and
time again in the tracks on her new Sire Records release
Begin To Hope.
The album starts off strong, radio-play strong, with "Fidelity,"
a song that undoubtedly has literate college girls across the
nation singing loudly in their Ford Escorts as they drive back
to school from their summer breaks. Yes, I can picture it,
four girls in collegiate sweatshirts, windows rolled down,
singing, heads out the window, loudly.
The songs on the album continue in their vein. "Samson" is a
beautiful little jewel of a tune. "You are my sweetest
downfall/I love you first, I love you first beneath/The stars
came falling on our hats." I wonder, as I hear the song again
and again, what kind of hats they were. Where were they?
Baseball hats? Ski masks? Who was Regina's "Samson"?
"On the Radio" belongs, yes, on the radio, simply because it
mentions the Guns N' Roses tune "November Rain," which is
cool no matter how you shake it and, my oh my, Spektor
can shake it. Yes, this young Bronx lass originally from
Moscow, Russia, knows how to sing and play piano. She
actually played classic piano at SUNY Purchase Music
Conservatory, all the while sucking up pop radio as well as
the musical stylings of Billie Holiday.
The album, her first major release after her debut
11:11, as well as 2002's Soviet
Kitsch, and a CD/DVD retrospective Mary Ann
Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories in
early 2006, is lushly produced with cleanliness in sound and
it's big, big!
"Apres Moi" is one of the most impressive tunes on the
album that shows Spektor's musical capabilities and her
songwriting abilities. It's reminiscent of a song that Baz
Luhrmann would want to use on one of his splashy
Hollywood musicals. The song is odd, but beautiful, gritty,
yet shimmering. Imagine Luhrmann rolling camera in a
1920s Eastern European beer hall, the moon shimmering
through tattered window curtains, the clientele woozy over
cobbled together tables eager for more from the songstress.
"More!" they yell, and Spektor delivers.
She delivers again and again over the course of the album
that gets better and better the more you listen to it. It'll be
interesting to see how she develops in her burgeoning
career. One can begin to hope with her Begin To
Hope album she'll break free of the Apple/Amos
comparisons and stand alone, as well she should. |
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