Open up your folding chair (by conical valves)

Sorry for the delay in posting. I hope you weren't all frantically refreshing the page waiting for my post.

Anyway I've got an album review for you today. Regina Spektor's new album, Far, was released last week. Aside from catching half of it when she streamed it early, I pre-ordered it and have been listening to it for the past week and a half.

Personally, I find the album to be a bit of a disappointment coming from her. The album is loaded with superstar producers and studio musicians and as a result, no longer has Spektor's typical quirky air to it. Every track just sounds overproduced and the only thing remaining of Regina is the voice. None of the songs are bad individually, but what I like to refer to as the "curse of The Fray" seems to have befallen her. The songs are all good individually, but they all sound the same. There is a clear formula to all of them: one verse sans studio musicians, then second verse the drums and musicians kick in. In past albums, even though I may not have liked all the songs, they all very much had their own sound.

If you are looking to buy some individual songs off of the album and not the whole album I recommend: 

1) Folding Chair

2) Blue Lips

3) Laughing With

4) Dance Anthem of the 80s

5) One More Time with Feeling. 

Folding Chair is possibly the only track on the album that benefitted from the many producers. I've heard a live version of this track that doesn't feature the studio musicians or production and I much prefer the album version.

Blue Lips is the second track on the album and is slower and more serious than the two that surround it. I find it to be a delightfully dark track, with incredibly ambiguous lyrics. It seems to discuss greed, religion, and death all in one 3 1/2 minute song. However, it could definitely do without the formulaic creation.

Laughing With is another song with a religious theme. In this case it describes the hypocrisies of religion. She lists a variety of situations in which "No one is laughing at God" but then reminds us that when we're not worried we turn around and make God something trivial again. Again I think this could benefit from not being overproduced, but it's still a beautiful song.

Dance Anthem of the 80s is possibly the song that retains the most of Spektor's normal style. It's also delightfully dark, but very subtly so. At first listen it seems quite sweet, but repeated listening brings out the darker side of the lyrics.

One More Time with Feeling is another slower, more serious song, although this time subtly uplifting instead of subtly dark. I absolutely love her voice in this song and think it's worth a listen for that alone. I very much wish it hadn't ever been touched by the producers though; it could be so much more powerful without their influence.

Picture from http://www.amazon.com/Far-Regina-Spektor/dp/B00204AA0O