Album Review: “Far from…” pun goes here

Far by Regina Spektor

2009, Sire, 13 tracks at 47 min.

Look everybody! An album review! On the day the album is released! How on top of things am I? Quite, I would say, and, also, I’m pretty “far” from being tardy on this review! Oh, man, what a pun! Now, you see how I use puns often, and to poor effect? Well, Ms. Spektor does much the same with her vocal skullduggeries, albeit to a much more efficient degree. Her fifth album, Far, continues the piano-mistress shtick that she’s been riding on since Soviet Kitsch. Yet does this technique still hold charm?

Let’s see: “Laughing With”? As in “Laughing With a Mouth of Blood”, the song by St. Vincent that Spektor obviously copied? Nah, Spektor may be Russian but she’s no thief. You see, the Spektor fans have been complaining in the Last.fm shoutbox because the song doesn’t have enough ‘quirk’. “Oh, man, Regina’s not singing about crates of tangerines or polite ghosts! She sucks now!” Pitchfork, meanwhile, misses the point of the song and sums it up as “lol dumb atheists.” Gee, sorry Regina Spektor has a religion. SORRY, EVERYBODY, STOP LISTENING TO HER; SHE HAS A GOD. Conversely, the song seems to be more of an existential anthem—no one’s laughing at god; we’re laughing with him because all human tragedy—no matter the severity—is minute and insignificant on a more cosmic scale. Were I the sort of person who cries to Regina Spektor, tears may very well have soaked the corn dog I was eating whilst listening.

But who really cares what Spektor is singing about? Her lyrics often have the ambiguous edge needed to feign greater depths, thus satisfying lit-holes like me while still wowing the more simple-minded with her vocal calisthenics. I mean, “Two Birds”? Is this a Flann O’Brien reference? Hahaha, no. This is frigging Regina Spektor. Get over yourselves, kids. Nah, I was really kidding. Regina knows her literature (see “Samson”, “Paris”, “Pound of Flesh” and “2.99 Cent Blues” from previous releases). Otherwise, though, this is one of the more addictive songs on the album. A future single? Possibly maybe; the short bursts of brass are pretty seductive—certainly more-so than Björk’s post-feminist pagan horn orchestra.

The album gets off to a good-enough start—“The Calculation”, “Eet”, and “Blue Lips” establish catchy melodies alongside Spektor’s usual lyrical mix of cynicism and naïveté—but things go downhill following “Laughing With”. “Human of the Year” drags along and can’t be saved by the periodic repetition of “Hello, hello?” “Genius Next Door” and “Wallet”, meanwhile, will fail to captivate the Spektorally-unengaged with less-than-stellar melodies. I’d like to say that the dolphin grunts on “Folding Chair” justify all these missteps—especially considering this is likely the album to propel Spektor farther into the realm of the Apple-Amos-Mann niche—but not even cetacean mimicry can compensate for the lyrically-insightful but melodically-lacking “Genius Next Door”. The lack of a more ‘commercial’ (read: uptempo) melody on “Wallet” is lamentable, as the narrative lyrics concerning a lost wallet and its finder are of Suzanne-Vega-level perception.

Spektor’s vocal play remains the main attraction on Far, and for those concerned with her ‘quirkiness’—it remains intact. Fans will find much to enjoy here, but new listeners will wonder what the hooplah is all about. And, if you do happen to be a first-time Spektorite, then kindly disregard the Pitchfork review. “I like to imagine that somewhere 19-year-old Taylor Swift hears this song and shakes her head, wondering when Regina Spektor is ever going to grow up,” writes Joshua Love of the track “Dance Anthem of the 80s”. Oh, yes, because Swift singing about a prince-princess love story is absolutely mature. Learn to patriarchal hegemony, please.

RATING:

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Listen to Far at NPR