Beginning to Hope you'll love Soviet Kitsch
Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Evocative lyrics, interesting sound |
| Disadvantages: |
Not always easy to listen to |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
When I heard the most original rendition of "Little Boxes" ever at the start of an episode of the TV show "Weeds", I made a point of finding out who the singer was. Until that time, don't think I'd ever heard of Regina Spektor. After some investigation, and listening to some excerpts off Amazon, I decided to buy her album "Begin to Hope", and its one of the best purchase I've ever made.From research on the Internet, and what I can hear on this album, she had classical training on the piano, and uses it extensively. How this type of background got her into the American Anti-Folk scene is beyond me, but the combination is simply intoxicating. Until I discovered Spektor I didn't even know what the Anti-Folk genre was. I now know that this originally British genre has its origins in Punk Rock music and mixes American folk music elements - a juxtaposition that results in songs that can be both disturbing and gorgeous at the same time. Regina's perfectly clear soprano, has no roughness to it, and a range that will surprise you without ever sounding screechy. Even so, she likes to throw in bits of beat-box effects on occasion. For instance in her song "On the Radio" she hits you with a sharp "uh-oh" that might shock you to begin with, but it grows on you very quickly. She also uses this extensively in "Hotel Song", where the staccato of her voice is a perfect compliment to the snare drum and cymbals backgrounds, that also contrasts with the constant smooth vocal behind it all.She also likes to play with accents in some of her songs. For instance, in "Fidelity" when she sings the word "better" it sounds almost cockney "beht-ah", while in the song "Better", she pronounces it "bed-uh" with what sounds like a Bronx twist. Sometimes she plays up the New York accents, like in "On the Radio" the words 'storm' and 'born' rhyme because of her pronunciation. Then in "Apres Moi" she sings half of the song in Russian, while using a heavy Bronx accent on words like "yours" as a stark contrast. Combine that with some of the most intriguing lyrics that make you think while telling stories and I'm in seventh heaven. The song "Samson" is one about a romantic relationship. The story of Samson and Delilah is well known one - Samson, gets his strength from his hair, and his lover Delilah cuts it off to help the Philistines defeat the Israelite revolt. Here, Regina uses this story to parallel a love affair, starting with the words "you are my sweetest downfall, I loved you first". Without actually telling us in so many words, we understand that her cutting off his hair doesn't completely work as it should, through the words "Samson came back to bed, not much hair upon his head, ate a slice of wonder bread and came right back to bed". Here, the significance of the wonder bread is twofold - first in the sense of bewilderment, and secondly in the sense of regaining power, as 'Wonder Bread' is a brand in the USA that's advertised as being healthy for kids.Her piano virtuosity is never more prevalent than in the song "Apres Moi", which opens like a piano concerto by Tchaikovsky. Here she also adds in beat-box sounds, which points up the very strong Russian Revolution feel to the lyrics "I must go on standing, you can't break that which isn't yours", and "Apres Moi de deluge, after me comes the flood". And yet, she still includes interludes of gentle vocals that assuage some of the anger in this song. This song is so complex and layered; it could become the topic of a master's thesis. She also shows off her piano skills in "20 Years of Snow", which also has such fascinating lyrics as "His daughter is twenty years of snow falling/She's twenty years of strangers looking into each other's eyes/She's twenty years of clean/She never truly hated anyone or anything" or the evocative repetitive line near the end "And the words float out like holograms". Spektor also shows some more rocky bits with songs like "Better" and "That Time" in which we get just her lower register voice and a slightly off key bass guitar accompaniment. In other songs, like "Edit" she makes the piano sound minimalist, using it at the start of the song almost like a drum to point up the beat and rhythm. Then she gives it a lyrical line that has a Latin undertone to it, starting light and then moving to the darker low notes before returning to pretending to be a percussion instrument again. The mixing of these genres seems to be her artistry. For instance, in "Field Below" and "Lady" she delves into the Blues. "Lady" even gets a saxophone solo that sounds like it comes straight out of a film-noir movie. This also spreads over into her song "Summer in the City", but there it has both melody and lyrics that have a gospel/country feel to it. I should mention that on first listening you might not be overly thrilled with this album. The second time you listen, you'll start hearing many of the things I mentioned here and they may start to raise your eyebrows. After you've listened to this album a third time, it is very likely that you'll be saying things like "this is amazing" as you listen. Yes, it takes three times to really understand how fantastic this album actually is.After falling in love with Regina Spektor after buying "Begin to Hope", I knew I had to get some of her other albums. Working my way backwards, chronologically, I bought "Soviet Kitsch" at the airport before vacationing in Italy. As this was the only CD we had to put in our rented car for two day, we were able to become very familiar with this album, and this is what I think of it. Firstly, I have to say once again that Regina's talent is very special, but also very specialized. This is not an album you'll adore the first time you listen to it - but that's just the way it is with Regina and her songs. This isn't to say that her voice is hard to listen to, or that the music itself is harsh on the ear. On the contrary, Spektor's voice is generally a very pleasant one, and even when she rocks it up and pushes it, she doesn't ever sound overly rough or screech. Even her darker songs seem to be softened by her virtuoso piano that borders on the classical. The exceptions on this album are her song "Your Honor", and possibly "Poor Little Rich Boy". The former has a truly metal/punk feel to begin with, but even that fades into her sweetest folk voice and quiet accompaniment to soften it up. In the latter, the song starts out more melodic and has a more severe ending, with Regina almost shouting "You're so young, you're so goddamn young". The only other slightly stark lyrics are in "Sailor Song" where she declares several times that "Mary Anne's a bitch" with a hardened piano and tambourine accompaniment that belies the milder tone of the rest of the song.As I found out from "Begin to Hope", this mixing of genres and sounds is something that she's very well known for doing. Throughout this album she switches between discordant and pleasant within almost each of the pieces presented here. Perhaps the only songs here that have mostly one consistent tone to them are "Us" and "Somedays", and to some extent, "Ode to Divorce". Even so, these are hardly boring to listen to, since she likes to add background instrumentals with rich strings or banging percussions on top of her solo piano in parts to emphasize one section of a song or another. I should mention that her piano is very prominent in this collection, and that is a good thing since her prowess is obvious. However, I found her piano compositions on this album slightly less interesting than they were on "Begin to Hope", and slightly repetitive. As this record was released prior to that one, it only proves that she is growing as an artist in her career. The singles from this album really are the two finest of the collection. These are "Us" and "Carbon Monoxide". I think, however, "Ghost of Corporate Future", "Ode to Divorce" and "Chemo Limo" should have gotten more air time, since I found the lyrics on these to be particularly fascinating. For instance, "Us" is mostly about a relationship, but without any of that lovey-dovey or angst stuff. This song focuses more on how the people in the relationship view the actions and opinions of people observing that relationship. This is an angle of looking at love that is rarely, if ever, used. But the true poetry on this album is showcased in "Ode to Divorce". Here's a story of a woman who has been left and again, rather than concentrate on the anguish of the situation, she describes her feelings in a physical way. The best way to explain this is to give you the opening lyrics and you can judge for yourself:"The food that I'm eating/Is suddenly tasteless/I know I'm alone now/I know what it tastes like/So break me to small parts/Let go in small doses/But spare some for spare parts/There might be some good ones/Like you might make a dollar/I'm inside your mouth now/Behind your tonsils/Peeking over your molars/You're talking to her now/And you've eaten something minty/And you're making that face that I like/And you're going in, in for the kill, kill/For the killer kiss, kiss for the kiss, kiss." What more can I say? The emotions are deep in these words, despite their simplicity and make for a very evocative song. Mix that with her versatile vocal range, contemporary musical style and interesting mixings and you have an album that is not only lovely to listen to (even with the more abrasive sounding bits), but thought provoking. This is not a chill-out album, nor is it a record that you can dance to. This is for listening to carefully and discovering all the intricacies of the collection, one by one, as well as over and over again. While I found this slightly a less mature album than "Begin to Hope", I still feel it deserves at least four stars (I'd give it four and a half, if I could) and recommend it to anyone wanting to discover a truly unique singer-songwriter.
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