Regina Spektor, Soviet Kitsch

WOW! Basically sums up Regina Spektor's "Soviet Kitsch" album.

She is truly stunning and this is the album on my internal juebox at the moment.

I'm no music expert but this is brilliant. She's very diverse and has a really unusal singing style which I think adds to appeal of this album.

Sharp lyrics and beautiful singing! What more could you want! 100% recommended!

I'll definitly be listening out for more of Spektor's music in the future!

Eccentric, witty, and innovative Regina Spektor has done it again, but not in the "oops I did it again" sort of way. Her latest album "Soviet Kitsch", which resembles other non-genre specific artists like Nelly McKay or Fiona Apple, is written in an artsy, intellectual, and sometimes political fashion. Her bizarre yet brilliant lyrics and songwriting techniques compensate for her slightly lackluster piano and vocal skills. Lyrics that compare chemotherapy to buying a limousine such as "I can afford chemo like I can afford a limo, but on any given day I'd rather buy a limousine" are hilarious, yet they have a dark twist. The melody for "Chemo Limo" is in this same vein. The song starts out somber and bursts into explosive staccato piano with an upbeat tempo, all the while sung in a singsong theatrical way - a little rough around the edges vocally, but it works for the song. This is typical of Spektor's style- her songs tend to begin somewhere completely different from where they end up.

Track 5 "Your Honor" which was her apparent attempt at writing a pure rock song was not well received in my ears. It was more of a loud obnoxious rant that sounded like a bad band playing in a hole in the wall bar, but the rest of the album is interesting. My favorite song "Us " shows off her higher vocal register and her knack for writing really melodious refrains. The metaphorical lyrics aren't bad either; "living in a den of thieves rummaging for answers on the pages and it's contagious" is an interesting choice of words to rhyme! This is not an easy listening CD, but it can definitely increase your IQ if you have patience to sit down and listen carefully to what she is trying to convey.