Regina Spektor review – far

Regina Spektor is yet another talented songstress with powerful lyrics and strong melodies. And she does a sound dolphin impression, too…

Regina Spektor’s 2006 album ‘Begin to Hope’ was a piano-folk-pop masterpiece, with quirky melodies that had strong anti-folk roots but were still radio-friendly.

Spektor’s music is as confessional as Tori Amos, and punky and yelpy as Bjork, and as critical as Liz Phair. Her 2009 album, ‘Far’, is continuing to be a step in the right direction.

Dolphin alert: We’re very impressed with Regina Spektor interrupting her song about longterm commitment to uncork a flurry of dolphin noises. Goddamit, sometimes it’s all in the timing.

Oh, and her voice? It’s haunting and somehow old-fashioned. One review described her as a Joni Mitchell for the post-Strokes era, and we like that. That can stick.

Produced by Jeff Lynne, Garret “Jacknife” Lee, Mike Elizondo and David Kahne, Far matches Kitsch’s rococo flow with the follow-up’s pop smarts. On the jaunty, hip-hop-tinged “Dance Anthem of the 80’s,” she wanders lonely streets with her slip hanging out, “like a drunk, but not.” “Laughing With” begins as a meditation on God’s wicked sense of humor and ends collapsing in an existential freakout over a soft beat and weeping cello.

Oh, and we love the song where she has a full-grade emotional atom bomb fallout over finding a wallet with a Blockbuster card in it.

In all ways, a girl after our own heart.