Review: Regina Spektor, Begin to Hope

With the possible exception of “That Time,” with its repetitive, Alanis-style lyrics, there’s an underlying hope to Regina Spektor’s music.

Regina Spektor, Begin To HopeNot to discount the theatrical—dare I say artful—value of fashion shows, but as a music critic, it can be embarrassing when producers of such exhibitions have their ears closer to the ground than you. Regina Spektor is one many artists I’ve been introduced to via trips to Fashion Week over the years, and her brand of dramatic, string-laden baroque-pop (though she’s no relation to Phil Spector), exemplified best by the opulent U.K. hit “Us” from 2004’s Soviet Kitsch, is the perfect soundtrack for over-the-top couture.

Begin to Hope picks up where that song left off, adding experiments in electronica (“Edit”) and more accessible pop/rock (“Better”) to the mix, a kissing cousin of the Jon Brion-produced version of Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine. “I never loved nobody fully,” Spektor starts on Begin to Hope’s first track, “Fidelity,” but it isn’t long (by song’s end, actually) before the album begins to live up to its title.

With the possible exception of “That Time,” with its repetitive, Alanis-style lyrics, there’s an underlying hope to Spektor’s music. There’s a fearless, uninhibited confidence to Spektor’s voice, not to mention a delightful whimsy to her music, that sets her apart from artists like Apple. Her arrangements are inspired and ambitious and the melodies of songs like the wrenching “Samson” are classic yet startling original. Long before you even reach “Lady,” an ode to Billie Holiday, at the album’s end, the torchy piano ballad “Field Below” conjures the image of Spektor’s silhouette backlit with a smoky spotlight and a giant silver microphone.

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 Label: Sire  Release Date: June 13, 2006  Buy: Amazon

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

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