Album Reviews – Regina Spektor’s “Far”

by meandthestereo

  Artist: Regina Spektor
  Album: Far
  Label: Warner Bros.
  Release Date: June 23rd, 2009
  Decision: 3/5 Mediocre…Right Away
  Favorite Tunes: “Blue Lips”

 

 

1. The Background

 After three years, Regina Spektor is back! Did you miss her? When I heard this album was coming out, I was extremely interested. And, of course, it’s going to do well. So much sells these days just because of the name that’s on the plastic. Let’s take a look and see if this album is worth all the hype:

2. The Substance

This album consists of a strong piano-based spine, some good synth drums to back it up and various studio-added background stuff like strings, synth and, actually, no guitar that I can really remember. This is, of course, very well recorded stuff. You won’t notice any issues with recording. I like the producers’ choice to use some quirky drum samples and interesting background noise. I do NOT like Ms. Spektor’s vocal, what do you call them, vocal trademarks? At one point she makes dolphin noises, which didn’t help the song already (“Folding Chair”) and the way she sang the chorus on “Machine” really just kind of turned me off from the song. I do enjoy how she gets into recording her vocals, and I love when she stretches her voice to its angsty limits, but I’d have the same issues if anyone else attempted some of the odd things she does. It’s not that I don’t understand it; it’s just that it DOESN’T work well.

3. The Decision

3/5 Mediocre…Right Away. There are many songs on this album that I just didn’t like. What is the point of the chorus on “Eet”? Is this song just suppossed to make me sad? This is frustrating, because I feel like Regina wants to say something, and she builds it up and her voice gets annoyingly high and goes back to its normal level again…then you swear she’s gonna say something…and then she just doesn’t. And this is just a small example of what irked me about this album. The actual tracks are really put together quite well (though I swear I’ve heard “The Calculation” before, somewhere, done by someone else (it’s really just a typical pop song)), but it seems all the songs are lacking that ‘punch’ concerning the lyrics. I really don’t know how much time Ms. Spektor spent on her lyrics, but I would have liked if she had spent just a little bit more. “Blue Lips” is an amazing track, though, and I would definitely recommend listening to it. Whoever helped her arrange it, it was perfect. It’s one of those songs that knows how to create suspense and then seems like it’s going to give the listener some relief, but it never really does. At that point, you just have to listen to it again, because the feeling it gives, the way it messes with your emotions is just fascinating. I’d also like to mention that this album starts out very uptempo, but it quickly falls into a more serious and downtrodden album. It never really gets back to the energetic feel it has at the beginning. By the way, there’s a song about birds on this album, which if you haven’t kept up, is a MUST if you’re a singer/songwriter these days. If you’re into Ms. Spektor’s more “poppy” tracks, then by all means, go download the singles and definitely get “Blue Lips”, but give the rest of the album a pass. I’ve got to be honest with you: I like what she’s trying to do. I really dig that Ms. Spektor wants to be so creative with her music. I think it’s great that she tries to be so eclectic. But with this album, she’s found a way to be odd, yet still be kinda boring. I think there’s better stuff out there, so go spend your money on that.