Russian piano-pounder Regina Spektor continues to dig her own path
and finds, on Far, the middle ground between the twitchy
Soviet Kitsch and 2006’s pop crossover Begin to Hope. The
irony generation’s Tori Amos has a better sense of humour than her
colleague—Tori might commune with the earth, but she would never
imitate dolphins, as Spektor does on “Folding Chair”—but has similar
piano chops and a voice that can turn from elegiac to whimsical in the
course of a single verse (hear: “Human of the Year”). Spektor is one of
our keenest composers, turning tiny situations—finding the titular
object on “Wallet,” a local lake in “Genius Next Door”—into wry,
insightful observations of the human condition. Far‘s best songs
are its second and second-last: “Eet” (the sound made from dragging out
“beat”) is an electro-tinged ballad that explodes into a soaring bridge
before ending with Spektor beat-boxing lightly; “One More Time with
Feeling” begins mournfully in a hospital and ends a rallying cry: “Say
it in your mind until you know that the words are right/This is why we
fight.” Sonically guided by a team super-producers including Mike
Elizondo and Jeff Lynne, Far finds the warm side of slick,
finally shucking the non-existent “anti-folk” label Spektor never
deserved. This is some of the catchiest, most heartfelt and best pop
music being made now.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.