Begin To Hope - Regina Spektor

So, Regina Spektor, the Russian-American pianist-singer-songwriter-kook. Her new album, Begin to Hope, has been flirting with the real world for a good few months now, and after the release of single "Fidelity" it looks like she may well hit the charts with her own brand of slightly nuts piano and voice combinations. On her first major album Soviet Kitsch she produced a mix of witty and smart pop songs with post-punk influences and references to Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and in doing so created for herself a cult following of dedicated fans, who worship at "Reginapolis". The second album sees her with an orchestra to back her up, ...  Read the complete review

Regina Spektor follows in a long line of kooky female singer songwriters - Kate Bush, Fiona Apple and Tori Amos to name but a few - and in my opinion when it comes to singer songwriters, the wackier the better. Begin to Hope is her third studio album and second major label release and should have been the album that catapulted her to worldwide fame. Although I'd be pushed to say it quite achieved that (after all, how many of you are reading this thinking "oh yes, Regina Spektor, I know her well") it did give her a more widespread following, with airplay on Radio Two and even a slot on Jonathan Ross's chatshow. Regina Spektor was born in Moscow but ...  Read the complete review

When I heard the most original rendition of "Little Boxes" ever at the start of an episode of the TV show "Weeds", I made a point of finding out who the singer was. Until that time, don't think I'd ever heard of Regina Spektor. After some investigation, and listening to some excerpts off Amazon, I decided to buy her album "Begin to Hope", and its one of the best purchase I've ever made. From research on the Internet, and what I can hear on this album, she had classical training on the piano, and uses it extensively. How this type of background got her into the American Anti-Folk scene is beyond me, but the combination is simply ...  Read the complete review

Regina Spektor Begin to Hope I was 33 this year, and the day arrived with a haze of sun and not a hint of cloud. Himself, who finds it virtually impossible to keep a secret (actually, make that totally impossible…) had already, over the space of the previous week, given me all my birthday surprises and this wonderful album was amongst them (along with, amongst other things, a pair of loved-up stone frogs for ornamental interest in my garden…) I had heard only one song from the album, played on Radio 2, and had really only heard part of it, as Himself had called me up from his work to say “put radio 2 on NOW!!!” as he often does, and I ...  Read the complete review

Whilst waiting for Regina Spektor's most recent album to be added to dooyoo, I decided to take a detour from my Glastonbury Album trail and comment on one of the albums already listed. I wasn't impressed with the 2009 album "Far", so thought I better check up on the previous album to verify my opinion. I don't get the hype . She's not bad looking but musically it's soundtrack material for a slightly quirky US sitcom at the best. She has a squeaky awkward voice that shouldn't be put down to the singer's origins but rather that slightly jazz tinted pop genre that the likes of Norah Jones embraced several years ago. At times she actually sounds quite ...  Read the complete review