Regina Spektor – neue Musik für das deprimierte CD-Regal

Nachdem gestern eine weitere Hiwi-Stellen-Absage meine Laune in den Abgrund riss, heiterte mich Sven mit einer neuen Musikentdeckung auf: Regina Spektor heißt die Mischung aus Norah Jones (Klavier) und Nellie McKay (Texte, Melodien) die die Laune schnell wieder hob.

In der NY Times schreibt Jon Pareles über sie:

Regina Spektor

„Begin to Hope“ (Sire)

Regina Spektor is the queen of the quizzical. She has a sweetly good‑

humored voice, some classical piano training from her childhood in Russia and a gift for sounding far more naïve than she is. On her new album, „Begin to Hope,“ she asks pointed questions like, „If Ⅰ kiss you where it’s sore/Will you feel better, better, better/Will you feel anything at all?“ She makes observations like „Summer in the city means cleavage.“ And she can unfurl a poetic illogic that can be romantic or hard-nosed.

Ms. Spektor’s first three albums were low-budget, bare-bones productions: mostly just Ms. Spektor accompanying herself on piano, with songs mutating to follow her whims. „Begin to Hope“ is slightly less headstrong. It cloaks itself as pop, with more love songs, carefully balanced melodies, some decorous string arrangements and, in „Better,“ some rock guitar by Nick Valensi from the Strokes.

The songs are pretty on first listening, and some of Ms. Spektor’s straightforward love songs, like „Fidelity“ and „Field Below,“ reveal a gorgeously unguarded yearning. But she doesn’t hide her quirks elsewhere. „That Time,“ a rocker that hints at PJ Harvey, shares memories of a Lower East Side romance that included two overdoses. The perky „On the Radio“ has lyrics about, among other things, an epidemic, the nature of life (“You’re young until you’re not/You love until you don’t“) and the inordinate length of Guns N‘ Roses‘ „November Rain.“

In „Lady“ Ms. Spektor summons the sound and spirit of Billie Holiday, vowing, „I can sing this song so blue that you will cry in spite of you.“ And in „20 Years of Snow“ she envisions a woman as pure as „20 years of strangers looking into each others‘ eyes“ as her piano ripples through chromatic and whole-tone harmonies while electronics and strings wink into earshot.

„Begin to Hope“ proves that Ms. Spektor can write pop songs when she wants to. But pop is far from the only thing she wants.

Die Frau macht Spaß, heitert mit heller Stimmer und flotten Melodien auf und bringt ein starkes Piano mit. Mir gefällts!

PS: Und wer nun denkt mir sind als erstes die auf dem Wikipediabild evtl. als rot zu interpretierenden Haare und Löckchen aufgefallen, der irrt – Sven war aus 3 ⅿ Entfernung (!) schneller.

Verwandte Artikel

• Das Maskenspiel der Regina Spektor: 11 : 11 Albumreview
• Was für’s Auge: Regina Spektor …
• Statistisches Denken ist unnatürlich: Math is Music – Stats is Literature
• Nellie McKay singt für Nerds und Weltverbesserer
• Mathematik, wie sie die Amy mag, die II.te: Music Is Math by Glenn Marshall