Begin To Hope

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Begin To Hope

List Price: $15.98
Lowest Price: $6.74

Album Description:

Regina Spektor’s last album, 2004’s Soviet Kitsch, garnered praise from Time, Rolling Stone, Spin, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and many others. But this Russian-born, Bronx-bred singer-songwriter-pianist, who emerged from the NYC café circuit, continues to expand her vision. On Begin To Hope, produced by David Kahne (The Strokes, Sublime, Sugar Ray), she broadens here palette with electric guitar, drum machines and seductive electronic loops, finding new canvases for her provocative vocal style. Hope for pop has arrived with Regina Spektor.

Amazon.com:

The style known as "anti-folk," as realized by practitioners like Ani DiFranco and Billy Bragg, is derived from a punk aesthetic, and thus tends to be spare and confrontational. But while Regina Spektor's music is anti-folk in the way it subverts the traditional coffeehouse vibe, it's less interested in rebellion and more concerned with the joy of eccentricity, melody and surprise. Begin To Hope is full of surprises, and like her promising major label debut Soviet Kitsch, it displays an easy facility with song structure that enables her to go in different--sometimes wildly off-the-wall--directions without sounding scattered. Classically trained on the piano, she's been compared to Tori Amos, but her music isn't as delicate or precious. Fiona Apple comes up as well, but just because neither fits in the usual female singer/songwriter cookie cutter mold doesn't mean they sound the same. Her voice is actually the primary attraction, cracking and loopy on would-be lullabies like "On The Radio" and "Field Below," then punchy and cute on "Hotel Room." But the music, if understated in the mix next to her vocals, makes an impression as well, breaking in with twisty piano arpeggios ("20 Years of Snow") and occasional touches of electronica. It's a consistently intelligent and daring record, yet remains enormously listenable--a neat trick for anti-folk, or any other genre of music for that matter. –Matthew Cooke

Customer Reviews:

Rating:
Date: 2008-07-03
A Beautiful Sound
This is the kinda of music that can stop you in the midst of your tracks.

Creativity and beauty swimming in perfect harmony.

Her music makes you proud to be HUMAN.

Rating:
Date: 2008-04-28
Pleasantly suprised
I didn't realize how much I would like her music. Aside from a very unique voice, her lyrics are truly original. I haven't stopped listening to this album since I got it!

Rating:
Date: 2008-04-22
A Revelation!
At first this CD fell strange on my ear, and I didn't think I liked it. But something made me listen and brought me back again and again. I am now firmly of the opinion that Regina Spektor is an astonishing talent. Her musical style expands the boundaries and grays the lines among many musical genres: folk, pop, classical, rock, jazz, ethnic, etc. And, oh boy, can she sing! And play the piano, too! Also, the guitar! Her melodies are generally high energy and catchy (read "can't get it out of your head"), none of that monotonic, pedestrian tripe that many songwriters use as bland conveyances for their lyrics. Instead, with Regina, there is always a spark of genius and a freshness, like something special and new has come into the world. Her lyrics often combine a playful childlike whimsy with flashes of profound insight. She will exaggerate the pronunciation of a certain word as a child might or as someone from the Bronx might, obviously just for the fun of it. And you come away from the experience feeling that's what she is all about, having fun with the sound. For me, she has been nothing short of a revelation. We need more of Regina Spektor!

Rating:
Date: 2008-04-21
Amazing!
I share my ipod with my husband, so sometimes songs/cd's appear on it and I've no idea what to expect. So I'm walking along, down new york city streets, and this amazing voice comes on, singing clever, sad, witty, dazzling songs. I didn't even know what I was listening to, but I knew that I couldn't bear to turn it off, and will listen to her again and again. Regina Spektor doesn't sound like everyone else, indeed she doesn't sound like anyone else, she's not folk, not pop, plays a beautiful piano. Definitely worth exploring. A happy find.

Rating:
Date: 2008-03-14
a beautiful introduction to Regina Spektor......
I only started listening to Regina Spektor a few months ago, but, I must say that I am very impressed. Spektor's classical background is made evident in her piano accompaniment on the tracks, but, her attack of the music is anything but commonplace, mainstream or cookie cutter. This amazing woman, born in Russia, but raised in the boroughs of New York, combines her love of contemporary, Eastern European and more eclectic styles in her vocals and piano riffs, along with seamless vocals (complete with staccato accents on "Fidelity," one of her biggest singles, as well as more melodious approaches to melody in "On the Radio"). Spektor's lyrics are as distinctive as her melodies. They run the gambit of everything from her observations on love to her frank perception of the brevity of life. Don't wait and buy this gem of an album today!

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