Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch (2004) [FLAC]

Biography



by Heather Phares



A veteran of New York's anti-folk scene, songwriter Regina Spektor makes quirky, highly eclectic, but always personal music. Born and raised in Moscow until age nine, Spektor listened to her father's bootleg tapes of Western pop and rock as a young child and also learned to play piano. She and her family moved from Russia to the Bronx, where she was immersed in American culture (at the time, hers was the first Russian family in the borough in 20 years). Eventually, Spektor and her family became part of a community that balanced her Russian Jewish roots with her new home's culture. Meanwhile, she continued to practice piano anywhere she could, including at her synagogue, until her family got a piano of its own.



Spektor further developed her classical piano training by attending the SUNY Purchase Music Conservatory. During her studies, she was exposed to blues and jazz artists, including Billie Holiday. These sounds made such an impact on Spektor that they became a big part of her self-released 2001 debut album, 11:11. At the same time, she was also playing gigs anywhere she could in the city, in venues ranging from basements to parties to comedy clubs. On the strength of her frequent performances and another self-released album, 2002's Songs, Spektor developed a following that included Alan Bezozi, They Might Be Giants' drummer. He introduced Spektor to the Strokes' producer, Gordon Raphael, and both worked with Spektor on her third album, Soviet Kitsch, in both New York and London (where she collaborated with the band Kill Kenada). Soviet Kitsch was initially self-released like her other work, but it eventually found a wider release with Sire Records.



Tours with the Strokes, Kings of Leon, Mates of State, and the Moldy Peaches' Kimya Dawson further raised Spektor's profile. She also toured the U.K., where the success of "Us" as a European single led to the release of the CD/DVD retrospective Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories early in 2006. That summer, Begin to Hope, her first album of original material for Sire, arrived. Begin to Hope enjoyed popularity on both sides of the Atlantic and went gold in America, where it also cracked the Top 20. After taking several years to tour and compose new material, Spektor returned in 2009 with Far, which featured a bevy of star producers, including Jeff Lynne, David Kahne, Mike Elizondo, and Garret "Jacknife" Lee. Spektor’s first-ever live release, Live in London, was recorded and filmed at London's legendary Hammersmith Apollo, and released in 2010.



Soviet Kitsch is the third album by Regina Spektor. The title is drawn from Milan Kundera's expression for the vacuous aesthetics of communism, a theme in his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being. One version of the album was released with a bonus DVD, which included a short promotional film titled The Survival Guide to Soviet Kitsch and the music video for the song "Us". In 2009, the album was included in NME's list of 100 greatest albums of the decade.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/soviet-kitsch-r700913Review



by Heather Phares



Maybe it's just the preponderance of piano in her music, but Regina Spektor sounds more like a traditional singer/songwriter (in the best sense of that phrase) than her anti-folk contemporaries. On Soviet Kitsch, her third album -- and major-label debut -- her sound is more refined than ever before, but there are still plenty of rough edges and unexpected twists and turns. The Fiona Apple and Cat Power comparisons that have been leveled at Spektor since her first album 11:11 are still valid, particularly on songs like "Carbon Monoxide" and "Somedays," but Spektor is more theatrical and playful than either of those artists. Quirky character sketches such as "Ghost of Corporate Future" and "Ode to Divorce," and flights of fancy like the charming "Us" are quintessentially Spektor; though her songs may not be diary entries set to music, she imbues them with lots of personality and intimate details. Nowhere is this more apparent than on "Chemo Limo," a strangely uplifting song about a woman living with (not dying from) cancer that ends up being one of Soviet Kitsch's standout moments. "Flowers," which begins with a section inspired by her classical training and then moves to a part based on her Russian Jewish heritage, also shows how easily Spektor can incorporate different sounds and ideas into her own music. She does a 180 on the raw "Sailor Song," on which she gleefully yells, "Marianne's a bitch," and on the punky, off-the-cuff "Your Honor," which also features the London rock group Kill Kenada. A few of Soviet Kitsch's songs, like "Poor Little Rich Boy," concentrate on the childlike, mischievous side of Spektor's sound that puts her in the love-it-or-hate-it category for some listeners. Still, Spektor is an engaging performer throughout the album, and despite her arty quirks, she's never pretentious. She originally self-released Soviet Kitsch nearly two years before Sire released it, so it'll be interesting to hear what she does next.

Track listing



All songs written by Regina Spektor.



1. "Ode to Divorce" - 3:42

2. "Poor Little Rich Boy" - 2:27

3. "Carbon Monoxide" - 4:59

4. "The Flowers" - 3:54

5. "Us" - 4:52

6. "Sailor Song" - 3:15

7. "* * *" - 0:44

8. "Your Honor" - 2:10

9. "The Ghost of Corporate Future" - 3:21

10. "Chemo Limo" - 6:04

11. "Somedays" - 3:21



Track 7, or "Whisper", is a brief spoken word piece in which Spektor and her brother, Barry (Bear) Spektor, discuss the following song ("Your Honor"). The band backing Spektor on "Your Honor" is Kill Kenada.