Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope

Genre rock Publisher Sire External Links Official Regina Spektor Website Official Sire Website

There are artists and albums towards which I'll always emphatically feel one way or the other, without question. Beck, I'll always care for you. As tired and overplayed as it is, "Loser" could very well be my generation's song. And it's certainly one of your worst, which should say a lot. I don't care if there's a fuckload of damning evidence that says you're a devout scientologist, although I should. You're a sonic genius. And Neko Case's Blacklisted is solidly locked in my immediate mind's list of best albums ever. She sings from the bottom of an acoustic canyon in that one. Just a sublimely beautiful combination of lyric and voice. Arguing with me about this might make me fly at you. But other good music has a more of an ambiguous hold on my love and appreciation. I can recognize their talents and virtues, if you will, and throw my support behind their efforts. But their inadequacies, while sometimes laughable and possibly embarrassing, are enjoyable too. Blue Oyster Cult falls in this category, for obvious reasons (cough, "Godzilla"). So does Weezer's Pinkerton. And before I get letter bombs (or, I suppose, clever e-mail viruses) from you 45 year old indies, just think of America and our collective lack of masculinity. Pinkerton has a lot to do with that.

Anyway. This, quickly, is the crowd where I've placed Regina Spektor. A young New Yorker immigrated from Mother Russia, Spektor has employed marvelous simplicity in her previous albums, 11:11, Songs, (both self-released) and Soviet Kitsch playing an alternately powerful and vulnerable piano, but never shying away from absent-minded chair drumming, thigh-tap-slapping that give her a very personable, honest, playing-in-my-kitchen type of sound. In addition, Regina endeavors to remind all of her listeners that she is indeed, very, very cute and whimsical and childlike. I don't know about you, dear reader, but sometimes I can embrace this attitude, and sometimes it forces me to wince and repulse, rejecting the message behind it out-of-hand. This might be why I have no legitimate children yet.

Leaving the kids behind, this album is a sound continuation of Spektor's preceding work, although some of the charm is gone, replaced by streamlined audio, and electronic echoing and reinforcing of Regina's voice, which never needed it in the first place. That said, there are some genuinely good pieces, some maddingly engaging. "Fidelity" opens the album with light, plinking violins. Regina mimics them with chirping staccato, at times stretching the word "heart" into 13 bouncing syllables. Guarding against love's pratfalls, she "never love[s] nobody fully." But her lively tripping voice doesn't lie, infusing joy into the up-and-down experiences that involvement brings. "Field Below" delivers what almost feels like a grieving church hymnal, beginning with Regina barely able to choke out her first words, wishing for her concrete city to become a simple farmland, in hopes of rejuvenation. Stirred into the lower somber chords comes a light piano and xylophone quiver, as Regina notices the same "darkness over the snow" when she acknowledges that her lover "[doesn't] live downtown no more." My favorite part of this song is when Spektor decides to channel some Lou Reed into her rolling, swelling vocals. If you notice, it sounds as if she's almost drunk in her lonely sorrow. And, as much as I fear unnecessary polish, especially when it is added to a raw, already interesting character such as the lovely Spektor, I could only admire her song "Edit" for holding on to that perfect segmented beat and that sweet "I'm whispering this song in your ear and NOW I'm belting out a smooth continuous note beautifully, and my breath is tickling your ear a bit, isn't it? No, no, don't move. Enjoy it." And throughout, tight static and is laid in the right spots, electronic drum beat is tapped just around her piano. "You can write, but you can't edit," she says. Well, Spektor isn't afraid of tweaking her sound towards what she wants and I'm on my way to being convinced. At this rate, she might one day make it into my Unconditional Love Pile. It can get messy in there with Beck and the Flaming Lips, Regina. Be careful.