Artist: Regina Spektor
Album: Far
Worth Buying? Every Track
You will be interested in this album if you are a fan of: Good Singer Songwriters
Tell me more: This is my first album experience with Regina Spektor. So I come to this review without the experience (or baggage, depending on how you want to look at it) of her back catalog. I come to this album as newbie.
This album really did sneak up one me. At first I was kind of indifferent. Another female singer songwriter at the piano singing with a soft lilting voice. Then the soft chorus to the song Blue Lips sung with an almost childlike innocence, struck me with its contrasting lyrics.
Blue Lips Blue Viens
Blue the Color of out planet from far far away
...Blue lips? The only people I know with blue lips are the dead. It felt like the song was contrasting ongoing bustling of human life against the silent intimacy of a single human death.
So I backtracked and started look at the lyrics preceeding the chorus
He stumbled into faith and thought
God, this is all there is?
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And all the gods and all the worlds
Began colliding on a backdrop of blue
Blue lips, blue veins
He took a step, but then felt tired.
He said, "I'll rest a little while."
But when he tried to walk again,
He wasn't - a child.
And all the people hurried fast, real fast
And no one ever smiled
Blue lips, blue veins.
Blue, the color of our planet from far, far away
Blue lips, blue veins.
Blue, the color of our planet from far, far away.
After that the next song to grab me was Laughing With. I was immediately struck by, the sheer realness, and truthfulness of these lyrics. I remember comedian Dennis Miller (before he switched to becoming a political commentator) saying "No one gives themselves to God on prom night" and these lyrics certainly do make that point and more.
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor
No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests No one's laughing at God when it's gotten real late and their kid's not back from that party yet
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they're about to choke
God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Clause
From this point forward I was won over. Each song began to grow on me more and more with each listen and I also began to notice that her musicianship showed an obvious background in Classical piano.
I don't get to review music for a living (yet) so I don't have the luxury of always being able to have access to (or the experience of) an artists entire catalog before commenting. So like most regular folks, I sometimes come to the party a bit late and maybe start with an artist a couple of album in. So it's always a real testament when a single album by an artist is enough to make me want to start investigating their back catalog and hear what musically led them to this album.
After forming my own opinion, I decided to then see what others had to say, I was surprised by the number of music writers who expressed some level of disappointment. Reading their reviews, it would seem that this album is a bit of a departure and they want their "old" Regina Spektor back. This in no way diminishes my desire to hear her back catalog, but I am glad that I went into this album without any baggage from it.
TJR 2010
Listen to samples and get it on CD here
Right now only 5.99 for the album at the mp3 store
special edition CD and DVD version
It's on Vinyl too
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