Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The colour of our planet from far far away..., 23 Jun 2009
It's been three years since Regina's last album, "Begin to Hope", was released, and her new album has finally arrived...
The album's lead single "Laughing With" was, I think, an excellent choice for first single. It's delicate, soft and very pretty. "Eet" also shows that same side of Miss Spektor.
"Machine" sounds like what I imagine Regina would have made if she had a top-notch producer at the time of recording her 2002 album "Songs". "Genius Next Door" and "Man of a thousand faces" are other songs that have a darker sound than the others.
"Blue Lips" is a bit different. It's a ballad with an epic, sweeping sound thanks to the very good production by Jeff Lynne (who has produced for artists such as The Beatles and Roy Orbison).
"Human of the Year" is a very nice track with a "church-gospelly" kind of sound that works nicely for Regina's voice and piano. Go to 2:17 in the track to hear how beautiful Regina's voice can really sound (it actually gave me goosebumps).
Fans of Regina's quirky, upbeat songs can't be dissappointed with this album. "The Calculation", "Folding Chair", and "Dance Anthem of the 80's" are possibly Regina's most catchy and fun songs to date. "The Calculation" is very radio friendly to be honest but Regina's piano and beautiful vocal styling and quirky lyrics just make it impossible not to like. "Folding Chair" is really fun and sweet; a very feel-good song that brings a smile to my face each time I hear it. "Dance Anthem of the 80's" starts out with familiar Regina territory, but the song develops and has a circusey, slightly eerie, sound with beatboxing to add more effect to it; a nice surprise...
Fans of Regina's early work might be worried that this album might be too overproduced and radio-friendly with the new producers; Jeff Lynne (The Beatles, Roy Orbison), Garret "Jacknife" Lee (R.E.M., U2, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, The Hives, Weezer), Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem, Fiona Apple). Yes, the album has a lot of extra production but it compliments Regina's personality perfectly and really adds to the songs. Regina's piano and vocals are up in the forefront where they should be.
The special edition of the album comes with a DVD of four music videos and two extra tracks "Time is all around" and "The Sword & The Pen" so I'd suggest paying a few more pounds to get it instead of the standard edition.
Regina has definitely matured over the last three years. Her voice is clearer, prettier, and she really SINGS her heart out on this album. Overall, I'd say this is a beautiful, emotional album that should please Regina Spektor fans. I'd be surprised if it didn't.
I'm really hoping her label promote her well; she deserves more attention than she gets.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Far - a long wait, a triumphant return, 8 Jul 2009
Regina Spektor is one of my favourite singer songwriters, and I've been looking forward to this new album for a while. It has been three years since Begin to Hope, and, since then, Spektor has moved further away from the quirkiest extreme of her anti-folk leanings into something more commercially palatable. But would opening this music out to a wider audience kill the very innocence, charm and uniqueness that has maintained a legion of devoted fans?
On first listen I was a little crushed to suspect that it might have. The songs seemed friendly enough, a little insipid and not particularly memorable. I was inclined to give it a disappointed 3 stars. But it soon became apparent that this album was a gem that just needed a little attention, a little polishing through listening to become a shining and beautiful addition to my collection - certainly worth four stars. It is a grower of an album, and, after a short while, a whole clutch of songs will have bored their way into your mind, catchy choruses and soulful verses that replay in your mind before you go to sleep, and demand playing as soon as you wake up. By this point I had decided to award a rare (for me) five stars.
In fact, this is an example of that most rare and exciting of musical experiences when you fall in love with an album, when it captures your imagination and passion and becomes the must-hear thing, the soundtrack to your day and is then inexorably and indelibly linked with the whole period of time for which it is the favourite record.
Spektor's piano compositions have always amazed me, but this is the first album when I've properly considered how beautiful her voice can be. She really does blast out in some of the songs, holding perfect, melodic notes and enchanting . The compositions and arrangements are also noteworthy - cellos in Laughing With, a pair of Oboes in Two Birds, tambourine in Blue Lips, drumming (that is never overly intrusive) combine with the ubiquitous, delicious piano to produce memorable soundscapes. There is more production, yes, but this time these values seem to add to Spektor's music rather than threatening to overshadow it.
Spektor is a polarising artist; people seem to either love her imaginative, quirky and sometimes downright bizarre music or hate it for being saccharine and weird. I have always loved the strange world view Spektor brings, lyrical stories that unfold over crashing piano and strained strings. Spektor has not lost her ability to compose catchy tunes, but this catchiness is not at the expense of a complex arrangement that, for me, retains interest in the songs long after any novelty has worn off. And in a world that can seem far too serious, escaping into Spektor's world, where we can laugh at god's sense of humour, sing along with the dolphins and meditate on blue being the most human of colours, is no bad thing.
In summary, this album is a grower, but one that from mean shoots develops into a beautiful flower. I think it will appeal to existing fans and new listeners alike - although Spektor's appeal will always be somewhat limited given the Marmite effect she has. It may be a turnoff for those longstanding anti-folk music fans who thought that Begin to Hope was far too commercial - I imagine this record already has the advertisers and TV execs waiting to make it the soundtrack for summer. But, for the rest of us this is another chance to enjoy 47 minutes 39 seconds in the company of one of the most imaginative, technically expert and melodic composers around today.
Track listings:
The Calculation - Spektor opens with a bouncy, up tempo number which has the familiar elements of a bizarre lyrical story (a couple pulling out their own hearts to make them come alive, making a computer out of macaroni pieces). In sound it is somewhere between On The Radio and Hotel Song but with the slicker production that is a hallmark of this album. It is super catchy, the only song from the album which I immediately loved.
Eet - given the chorus features only the word 'eet' you might think that this is a song on the more ridiculous end of Regina's already bizarre-tilting spectrum. But instead this is one of the more soulful, melancholic pieces, delivered with the slicker production and faster beats that have been noted, but still provoking an emotional connection. This is the first of alternating pairings which see comic songs placed next to more emotional reflections (such as with Blue Lips/Folding Chair).
Blue lips - probably my favourite song on the album (at the moment, at least!) this song combines the rhythmic verses with a strangely haunting and captivating chorus ("blue lips, blue veins, blue the colour of our planet from far, far away").
Folding Chair - Spektor descends back into silliness with a delightfully upbeat song featuring her imitating dolphins (which sound more like seals) singing the chorus. I thought this might get a little twee and annoying after a while, but it still brings a smile to my face along with her observation that her body is perfect because she has eyelashes that capture her sweat.
Machine - darker again, with a catchy, hooked into the machine chorus and staccato vocals to evoke a robotic existence at some point in what seems a darker, oppressive future. Not my favourite track, but perfectly listenable.
Laughing With - this was the lead track from the album, and it is easy to see why it was chosen. It is a evocative mix of minor keys and a rumination on the comic quality of god's cosmic plan, moving from the emotionally wrenching situations where god is very serious to the everyday comic situations that Regina's god seems to allow. It is beautifully composed, and affecting, even if it does sound more than a little like a Joan Osborne tune. This song produces some of Spektor's most arresting observations, that "No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes", or that "no ones laughing at God when its got really late and their kids not back from that party yet" - that last one in particular sending a fearful shiver down my body.
Human of the Year - this is a big, soaring, gothic song that posits that there is a Human of the Year award. It isn't entirely clear that this is an award anyone would want to win! A strangely dark tale unfolds, in the best tradition of Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers
Two Birds - one of the best songs on the album, an upbeat romp that elicits thoughts ranging from birds to two friends or brothers that can't decide whether to leave their home towns, with a delightful comic edge provided by the trumps of a pair of oboes and a racy chorus.
Dance Anthem of the 80s - pop beats on Regina's necessarily odd take on a dance anthem. Perfectly poppy, catchy and listenable.
Genius Next Door - by far the longest song on the album, weighing in over 5 minutes. A flowing, low-key with the memorable lyrics that the "lake had turned as thick as butter".
Wallet - Regina's ability to make a song out of the most minor seeming events is brought out in this tune considering how someone would feel if a lost wallet was returned.
One More Time With Feeling - not as memorable as some of the others on the album, and struggling to get my attention being placed so late on the album! Perfectly listenable, but nothing special.
Man of A Thousand Faces - the album finishes on a high with a delicious, whimsical track that rounds off the CD nicely. A wispy, repeated rift punctuated with heavier chords that build into a big vocal key change half way through.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
In our minds until forever, 25 Jun 2009
I have to hand it to Regina Spektor -- she actually has managed to refine and further her unique anti-folk/pop sound, but also keep the unique qualities of her older style. Her third studio album "Far" is all about this -- lots of multifaceted, fluid expanses of piano, weird little songs about computers made of macaroni, and a quirky little voice. It's a more polished piece of work, but still has the twists and edges to keep it interesting.
"We sat there looking at the faces/Of these stranges in the pages/'Til we knew 'em mathematically," Spektor says over a powerful, bouncing piano melody. She sings of creating pasta computers that "counted up our feelings/And divided them up even/And it called that calculation perfect love" and cutting out their own little pebble-hearts that they "struck 'em so hard/So hard/Until they sparked."
Well, it's nice to see that she isn't writing your average MTV goopy love-ballad about kissing.
It's followed up by a wistful little ballad with a title like a hiccup ("Eeeee-eeeeee-eeeeet!") , a horn-and-synth-riddled pop melody that bounces and swirls alternately, a stompy piano-rockers, mellow slower songs, soaring ballads about the ultimate prize ("Human, human of the year, you are"), a dance song or two, sprightly sunny pop melodies, a pair of rambling anti-folky songs.
It's nice to see that greater exposure hasn't taken away the weird from Regina Spektor's work. Rather than your usual silly love songs and personal laments, she tackles the loss of familiar things, God's sense of humor, a society full of chipper automatons ("They started out beneath the knowledge tree/Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences") and a 1984-esque story about being "hooked into machine." When it's not bizarre, she inserts little quirks and strange images that stick in your mind ("Blue lips, blue veins/The color of our planet from far away").
She also has become more polished musically, with everything a bit smoother and nimbler than before. Her piano is still the centerpiece -- it jabs, flows, bounces, ripples and elegantly twists -- and it's accompanied by the occasional swirl of synth, some horns, and plenty of subtle drumming. Listen carefully and you can hear a bit of violin in songs like "Laughing With," and some tambourine in "Blue Lips," just enough to flavor their sounds.
The song that doesn't fit in is "Dance Anthem of the 80s," which sounds like a token dance song, which tries to fuse anti-pop and dance. It doesn't quite work. The jabby jangling "Machine" (with its eerie synth and jingling chains) doesn't entirely fit either, but taken alone it's a brutally memorable song.
Well, enough of that. Spektor's slightly creaky vocals weave easily between clear high sweetness and quirky murmurs, and she's got a special knack for evoking a slightly magical, bittersweet worldview -- genies, a genial deity, love games, balloons, a lake that turns "thick as butter," and rainy streets. Lots of delightfully odd phrases ("and the pride inside their eyes/is synchronised to a love you'll never know") and images (sparks flying from a pair of pebble-hearts).
The special edition comes with a DVD with some extra music videos -- the surreal Escheresque "Laughing With," a frolic on a suburban frontyard in "Dance Anthem of the 80s," a soft-focused and elegant "Eet," and the black-and-white images of her face shot through a giant lens, surrounded by strange mirrors, snowglobes and contorted shapes. And there are two extra songs: the quirky sputtering "Time Is All Around" and the swirling strum-heavy "Sword and the Pen."
Despite a couple of ill-fitting songs (one awkward and one awesome), Regina Spektor's "Far" is a solid follow-up to her anti-folk and anti-pop tunes of the past.
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