Search - Regina Spektor :: Far (Special Edition CD/DVD)

Less vocal quirk, more studio work -- But still great

R. Price | Suburbia, IL USA | 06/24/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For those who've gotten to know Regina's music over the past few years, "Far" will not disappoint. Some songs offer thoughtful lyrics; others, a catchy chorus with trademark Regina vocals. It's true, this album definitely has a clean-cut studio sound, which is a sharp contrast to "Soviet Kitsch." But the music at its core is just as remarkable.



The special edition of this album comes with two bonus tracks: "Time Is All Around" is an upbeat track with some not-so-upbeat lyrics, and "The Sword & The Pen" is a somber song that seems to conjure up classical Russian composition. One note of interest is that ten minutes of silence has been tagged on to the end of "Man of a Thousand Faces" before the start of the bonus tracks. I suppose the idea was to keep the bonuses as a separate entity. However, if you rip this album to your computer to transfer to an mp3 player, you may want to trim that time off.



This edition also comes with a DVD featuring music videos for "Laughing With," "Eet," "Dance Anthem of the 80's" and "Man of a Thousand Faces." I'm not a huge fan of music videos in general, but these are worth a few viewings.



It's worth noting that this edition comes with full lyrics for all songs, including the bonuses. I believe the regular print DOES NOT. So if you like knowing all the words, this would be the edition to get."

In our minds until forever

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 06/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have to hand it to Regina Spektor -- she actually has managed to refine and further her unique anti-folk/pop sound, but also keep the unique qualities of her older style. Her third studio album "Far" is all about this -- lots of multifaceted, fluid expanses of piano, weird little songs about computers made of macaroni, and a quirky little voice. It's a more polished piece of work, but still has the twists and edges to keep it interesting.



"We sat there looking at the faces/Of these stranges in the pages/'Til we knew 'em mathematically," Spektor says over a powerful, bouncing piano melody. She sings of creating pasta computers that "counted up our feelings/And divided them up even/And it called that calculation perfect love" and cutting out their own little pebble-hearts that they "struck 'em so hard/So hard/Until they sparked."



Well, it's nice to see that she isn't writing your average MTV goopy love-ballad about kissing.



It's followed up by a wistful little ballad with a title like a hiccup ("Eeeee-eeeeee-eeeeet!") , a horn-and-synth-riddled pop melody that bounces and swirls alternately, a stompy piano-rockers, mellow slower songs, soaring ballads about the ultimate prize ("Human, human of the year, you are"), a dance song or two, sprightly sunny pop melodies, a pair of rambling anti-folky songs.



It's nice to see that greater exposure hasn't taken away the weird from Regina Spektor's work. Rather than your usual silly love songs and personal laments, she tackles the loss of familiar things, God's sense of humor, a society full of chipper automatons ("They started out beneath the knowledge tree/Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences") and a 1984-esque story about being "hooked into machine." When it's not bizarre, she inserts little quirks and strange images that stick in your mind ("Blue lips, blue veins/The color of our planet from far away").



She also has become more polished musically, with everything a bit smoother and nimbler than before. Her piano is still the centerpiece -- it jabs, flows, bounces, ripples and elegantly twists -- and it's accompanied by the occasional swirl of synth, some horns, and plenty of subtle drumming. Listen carefully and you can hear a bit of violin in songs like "Laughing With," and some tambourine in "Blue Lips," just enough to flavor their sounds.



The song that doesn't fit in is "Dance Anthem of the 80s," which sounds like a token dance song, which tries to fuse anti-pop and dance. It doesn't quite work. The jabby jangling "Machine" (with its eerie synth and jingling chains) doesn't entirely fit either, but taken alone it's a brutally memorable song.



Well, enough of that. Spektor's slightly creaky vocals weave easily between clear high sweetness and quirky murmurs, and she's got a special knack for evoking a slightly magical, bittersweet worldview -- genies, a genial deity, love games, balloons, a lake that turns "thick as butter," and rainy streets. Lots of delightfully odd phrases ("and the pride inside their eyes/is synchronised to a love you'll never know") and images (sparks flying from a pair of pebble-hearts).



The special edition comes with a DVD with some extra music videos -- the surreal Escheresque "Laughing With," a frolic on a suburban frontyard in "Dance Anthem of the 80s," a soft-focused and elegant "Eet," and the black-and-white images of her face shot through a giant lens, surrounded by strange mirrors, snowglobes and contorted shapes. And there are two extra songs: the quirky sputtering "Time Is All Around" and the swirling strum-heavy "Sword and the Pen."



Despite a couple of ill-fitting songs (one awkward and one awesome), Regina Spektor's "Far" is a solid follow-up to her anti-folk and anti-pop tunes of the past."

Another Masterpiece!

Jupiter Calling | California | 06/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Regina is so cute I can't stand it! This album is another step in her evolution. Ever changing and refining. Some say overproduced - no way! She worked with some big name producers on this record, and you can tell, but I feel it gives the album a fun and interesting twist. And Regina did co-produce as well so you know it is still her vision for the songs.



Finally to get Blue lips, Genius Next Door, Folding Chair, Time Is All Around and others on a record is more than I could've asked for in a tracklisting! And the new songs are just icing on the cake. Machine, Laughing With, Eet, the Calculation....Everything is just fantastic. Just an all around fun album.



Get this edition for the two bonus tracks and the bonus DVD with her 4 videos. Well worth it!



I hope she doesn't wait three years to release another album!"