Customer Reviews

Begin to Hope

5 star:		(122)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is simply a beautiful album, beautiful music, soothing, clever execution throughout. It ends on one of the most beautiful notes I've ever heard- Summer in the City and on up it crackles, sparks, wreaks, and explodes with a creativity of an artist at her best. What ridiculous labels: anti-folk, anti-pop, something to feed bad critics with--yes, Regina sounds a bit like Fiona sometimes (That Time) and is as adept with the keys and weirdness as Tori, but what she outshines both of these artists with is a vitality and energy that both of these self-conscious super stars have been lacking lately.

If Begin to Hope sounds a bit more commercial than her previous efforts, it's only because Regina has access to more musical colors and gets to explore her incredible musical vision on a bigger canvas.

Regina Spektor is plain and simply the best at what she does.
6 stars.

Author of:
A Bottle of Rain
Nowhere Near the Sea of Cortez

In her previous three albums, Regina Spektor specialized in quirky anti-folk. Piano, odd melodies and poetic lyrics.

But Spektor tries a new sound in her long-awaited fourth album, "Begin to Hope." Instead of anti-folk, her music here is more polished and poppier... or perhaps it's anti-pop. Either way, while this album has its middling moments, most of the songs are still Regina Spektor at her best.

It kicks off with the oddball "Fidelity," a trilling little song with the piano edged in synth. Spektor doesn't fare quite as well in the second one, which sounds too generic for her talents -- guitar pop with only a dash of piano, and only a few of her vocal flourishes.

But then the album changes, as if Spektor feels she's done enough "typical" pop. Instead she switches to the soft-edged piano melody of "Samson" ("You are my sweetest downfall"), followed by a strong string of songs that stick to her strengths: piano anti-folk (or anti-pop), and songs that don't sound like anything "On the Radio."

Instead she leans on soft piano ballads, silky piano folk and jagged little rock songs. Songs like "Edit" and "20 Years of Snow" are pure Spektor, with the cascading piano melody and the quirky singing, while "That Time" is a strange, mocking little rocker about reading Shakespeare and burying bits of a cat's body. The finale is a quiet, meditative song about loneliness in the city, and missing the one you love. For anyone who misses a lover, this will be a heart-tugger.

And the special edition has a bonus EP, perhaps for fans who adore her quirkier side. There are the bittersweet piano ballads like "Another Town" ("my soul feels so old!"), the bittersweet "Baobabs" and "Dusseldorf." And then there is quirk supreme: "Uhmerica," which has her uttering an explosive grunt through the chorus, and the kinetic weirdness of "Music Box."

Yes, the cry is that Spektor has gone commercial -- there's more guitar on this album, and little washes of synth. But the heart of her music has always been the piano, odd melodies and unusual singing -- and though this is a bit more polished than her prior work, the brilliance is still there.

And remember, the music is what we came here to hear. Once you get past the lackluster second song, Spektor's piano music is back -- she can do it slow and soft, or fast and jagged. And she's backed by some solid enough drums that get to go wild in "Hotel Song." And what about the synth? It bobbles along in the background... and actually enhances the piano.

Spektor's offbeat voice is just as versatile as her piano -- she sounds sweet in the ballads, quirky in the faster songs. She rattles off the strangely written songs ("the words float out like holograms") as she sings of loneliness, love and eating tangerines. "Be afraid of the cold/They'll inherit your blood/Apres moi, le deluge/After me comes the flood..." she croons.

Regina Spektor had a lot to live up to after the brilliance of "Soviet Kitsch," and for the most part she does. A bittersweet gem of anti-folk... and anti-pop.

I don't buy many CD's but I saw Regina Spektor on a morning news show recently and was mesmerized by her voice, her life and her poetry/lyrics. I tried to resist, but finally gave in and purchased this CD.

I was not disappointed! I like every song on it. It's so rare to hear a truly original soul anymore who isn't prepackaged and tied with a pretty bow by media mogols, but this CD is NOT your average music. It's funky, cool, fun and unique. Her voice is as much an instrument as her piano and she plays it with abandon.

If you march to the beat of a different drummer, you will LOVE Regina's music. I can't wait to hear more.

I now realize that Regina Spektor is not new to the music scene, but she is new to me. I am thrilled to have discovered her! "Begin to Hope" is a tremendous album.

Thanks to VH1 for playing "Fidelity" practically every morning. For a week or so I tuned in just hoping to see her video. I finally decided I had to try her ablum relatively sound unheard. Taking that chance was a great decision.

First, in my opinion, Regina has the sweetest voice you will ever hear. I could listen to it all day and not tire of it. Second, add to that her piano playing, and you have a very powerful combination. She sings and plays with such flair and artistry. She is extremely talented (all this and cute, too).

She makes use of varying styles: folk, classical, pop, and even hints of soul, blues, and jazz. And she does it all meticulously and beautifully. The instrumentation is generally sparse, her voice and piano are featured, while some songs are "fuller" than others. The mood ranges from fun to reflective. She impresses me as being intelligent and witty with her creative use of voice and piano. The lyrics are thoughtful, poignant even.

Certainly this CD isn't for everyone. There is no headbanging or club dancing. But if you have a taste for non-rhythm driven music, this recording is fabulous. For the right taste, this album positively hits the spot. Highly recommended!

This seems to be the Regina Spektor album which is finally bringing her to a more accessible or palatable place with general audiences, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving artist.

For my tastes, Regina is one of the most original and creative artists in the singer-songwriter world, and the quality of the work has been uniformly fierce and satisfying since she first appeared on the scene with indie releases and local NYC appearances. Now she is becoming a certifiable minor phenomenon, with 5 CDs out and a growing European and American following.

I was prepared to be resistant to this CD since it definitely leans a tiny bit more toward the commercially accessible side, but this has been done without any sacrifice to the essential quirkiness and individuality that Regina seems to so effortlessly exude. There is noticeably more studio "polish" to the production, though surprisingly less acoustic instruments than on SOVIET KITSCH (the wonderful string playing which illuminated certain songs on that previous album is conspicously absent here, though the ghost of a violinist seems to be audible briefly in "20 Years of Snow").

Some of these songs were already very familiar to Regina fans, as she's been performing most of them live for quite some time. One, "Samson," was on a previous album, but she's done it here at a slightly faster tempo, and with the additional emotional element of synth strings.

BEGIN TO HOPE covers an admirable range of styles, from the relative pop-iness of "On the Radio" and "Better" to an almost Randy-Newman-meets-Paul-Simon gospel influence in the expressive "Field Below." "Apres Moi" contains a hint of the kind of symphonic backdrop Regina would use if the budget permitted, and also is her first song to contain Russian lyrics (apparently adapted from the words of Boris Pasternak).

"That Time" has a devastatingly haunting lyric over an almost punk-like guitar driven simplicity (unusual for this largely piano-based performer). "Lady" revisits the jazz influences which were more prevalant on her first album a few years back. "20 Years of Snow" paints a portrait of a vulnerable and skittish young woman that rivals the most poignant feminist work of a Tori Amos or Ani DiFranco.

There is sadness here, and joy, emotional honesty and humor. Every song is worthwhile. This will be one of those albums (like Imogen Heap's I MEGAPHONE, for instance) during which you needn't skip any tracks.

Though I'm not sure if it's still available, I should point out that the extended edition of the CD (with 5 additional b-sides on a second CD) raises the stakes even higher. In my opinion, some of the best (and certainly quirkiest) material on the album is on that second CD, which is piano-only, including "Baobabs," "Dusseldorf," "Music Box," and the somewhat controversial "Uh-Merica" which is usually an audience-participation song when performed live.

One oddity which must surely be intentional: the song "Dusseldorf" contains the lyric "soviet kitsch," but was not on that album and rather appears on this subsequent album. Similarly, Regina has an exquisitely beautiful song called "Begin to Hope" which, almost ironically, is not on the "Begin to Hope" album. I have to assume that it will appear on the next album, and perhaps she'll carry forward a little in-joke where the title of the current album is taken from a lyric which won't appear until the next album.

I could get more specific about this or that song, but it seems needless. Regina is a real genius, and a by-product of her uncompromising individuality has been that a lot of people heard some of her previous material and were kind of scared off by the intensity and individuality of what she does, finding it too weird or (as one friend of mine said)"scary." But with BEGIN TO HOPE she has made a CD that is more likely to win the hearts and minds of people who have not yet embraced her than any single previous albums.

I still overall prefer the SONGS CD (or the British GRAVEDIGGERS compilation) as the finest single collection of material on one CD -- either one of those CDs is surfeited with an astonishing variety and creativity. And I prefer some of the bargain-basement ambitions of SOVIET KITSCH (especially the string quartet or the overwhelming poignancy of the cello in "Ode to Divorce").

But I believe this album is going to convert a lot of people, especially with the success of "On the Radio" and now "Fidelity," and unlike someone like Jonatha Brooke, Regina doesn't seem to be losing the essence of her individual indie spirit just because she is becoming a more commercially viable artist. Congratulations to her on all her success, because she's really in a class by herself -- she's like a female Russian Bob Dylan, not for everyone but fiercely genuine and of enormous value to the culture.

I was introduced to Regina Spektor rather late in the game, apparently, this being the first album of hers that I've heard. When I listened to it the first time, I was, of course, amused (if not a little perplexed) by the grunting and other such vocal acrobatics. But as I came to know each individual song better, I began to understand that the noises are part of a bigger soundscape. Regina Spektor is eccentric, yes, but she is also incredibly talented - not only as a singer, but also as a songwriter. The album is an array of different styles and musical ideas, all executed very well. I think it is obvious that Regina Spektor thought long and hard about how the music would reflect the lyrics and vice versa, putting her a step ahead of many of the other songwriters out there who use the same chord progressions and musical styles over and over and over again. This music is challenging, requiring more from the listener than just a pair of earphones and a quarter of their attention span. Many of the songs conjured up memories from my classical music training and my study of art songs with their compact thematic structures and text-painting. For example - the grunting in `Apres Moi' isn't just there as a rhythmic icebreaker. To me, the grunts sound like she is being hit in the stomach, but no matter how many punches she takes she "must keep on standing." Each song on this album is a successful work of art. Some tracks may strike the listener more than another, depending on their likes and dislikes, but if you enjoy smart, different and intriguing music, this CD will not disappoint.

I only started listening to Regina Spektor a few months ago, but, I must say that I am very impressed. Spektor's classical background is made evident in her piano accompaniment on the tracks, but, her attack of the music is anything but commonplace, mainstream or cookie cutter. This amazing woman, born in Russia, but raised in the boroughs of New York, combines her love of contemporary, Eastern European and more eclectic styles in her vocals and piano riffs, along with seamless vocals (complete with staccato accents on "Fidelity," one of her biggest singles, as well as more melodious approaches to melody in "On the Radio"). Spektor's lyrics are as distinctive as her melodies. They run the gambit of everything from her observations on love to her frank perception of the brevity of life. Don't wait and buy this gem of an album today!

I've been a fan of Regina Spektor for years, ("11:11"? "Songs"? remember those albums? ...If you live on the West Coast like me, probably not.) I actually discovered her when one of my friends on AIM was telling me about her, and I was interested, so I asked my friend to mail me copies of all the music she had by Regina. And since then, I was hooked. I've never heard anything like her before. It was interesting to think I was one of the few people in the state of California who knew who Regina Spektor was. then about a year later, the major label debut, "Soviet Kitsch" came out, and it was all i listened to for a long time. And then one day in early 2006, I was reading through my bulletins on myspace, and i see one from Regina, announcing the 2 new songs on her profile. "Fidelity", and "Better". I was excited! So I listened to these songs, and I was surprised at how mainstream they were. Beautiful, nonetheless, and still totally Regina, but it sounded to me like Regina was playing with her sound a little bit, no shame in that..just as long as her sound didn't change completely.
So I waited impatiently for "Begin to Hope" to finally come out..and when it did, of course I bought it the day it came out, listened to the whole thing, and said to myself, "Yep, this album is gonna make her famous." Sure enough I was right. It took awhile, almost a year...and I thought it was funny that I was already kinda tired of "Fidelity" when it's video premiered on VH1 in 2007, and everyone knew who she was based on that song alone. I'm glad more people know who she is now. Many people say she's selling out, But I really don't think she is. I think every artist needs to get discovered, and experiment with their music a little bit. Plus, every one of Regina's albums have a different sound to them...But they're all Regina Spektor. She doesn't remind of Tori Amos (well, sometimes she does), she doesn't remind me of Fiona Apple. Regina Spektor might play the piano, and almost look like a cross between these two artists...But people need to stop comparing. She's just Regina, plain and simple.

Now, since I'm an Amazon.com customer, I'm going to rate the songs on a scale of 1-10. Plus I'm bored, and I really have nothing better to do, anyway, hahaha. So here goes...

1. Fidelity - 9/10. AMAZING song, couldn't stop listening to it when I first heard it. But now that I'm kind of tired of it, I think I can safely say it's definately not the best song on the CD, and it sure as hell is NOT her best song ever.

2. Better - 9/10. Beautiful, catchy, amazing, and sweet. Repetitive? yes. Does that matter? no.

3. Samson - 10/10. There's 2 versions of this song. the "Songs" version, and the updated "Begin to Hope" version. both versions are SO beautiful, and SO amazing, I think neither version is better than the other, because both versions have the power to bring me to tears. I'm convinced Regina Spektor has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard, and it really shows on this song.

4. On the Radio - 10/10. I can't even explain how much I love this song. It's just so beautiful, the lyrics are so powerful, and true. And by the way, if you haven't seen the music video for this song, youtube it..SO cute. :)

5. Field Below - 20/10. Without a doubt my favorite song on this album. It haunts me, gives me the chills, and definately reminds me of a Billie Holiday song. What I love about Regina Spektor is that her voice always relates to the song she's singing. This song is sad, and you can hear the pain in Regina's voice, and whenever I listen to this song, I feel it.

6. Hotel Song - 10/10. Another favorite. I think Regina Spektor might be the only person who can make the word "cocaine" sound beautiful.

7. Apres Moi - 8/10. This song is good, not my favorite...but it's different. Regina's classical training is definately put to use in this song. (and PS, this is where she reminds me of Tori Amos.)

8. 20 Years of Snow - 10/10. This song is really, really pretty. I just recently got into this song, after never really listening to it (and I mean never REALLY listening to it). It was one of those situations where I 'thought' I wouldn't like it, but ended up LOVING it in the end. So if you THINK you don't like this song, i advise you to listen again. you'll end up loving it.

9. That Time - 10/10. This song cracks me up. It's just so Regina. And okay, if you've never seen Regina Spektor live, and the chance comes around...Take it. She performs all her songs beautifully...But she's especially cute when she does this one, with her guitar. :D

10. Edit - 8/10. Repetitive, but it works here. This song is really cool, and I like the way it was mixed and *cough* edited. ;P, it's not my favorite but its still good.

11. Lady - 10/10. Another favorite! YAY! This song is obviously a tribute to Billie Holiday. It's haunting, gives me the chills, and sounds like a Billie Holiday song. And it makes me cry ("little wet tears on my baby's shoulder".)

12. Summer in the City - 10/10. Some people don't take the lyrics seriously, and of course the "cleavage, cleavage, cleavage" line is gonna make you laugh, but this song makes me cry. My lover went off to college, and this song makes me miss him more than anything. I think anyone who misses someone can also relate when they hear this song.

Basically, I HIGHLY recommend this album to ANYONE who loves pretty music. But take it from a die-hard Regina Spektor fan, if you can get your hands on copies of her first 2 albums, please do. and also Soviet Kitsch. I recommend anything Regina Spektor has ever done, and whenever anyone is looking for music recommendations, I always suggest Regina Spektor first.
And like I said before...go to one of her shows! You won't regret it.

Admittedly, I am a book reviewer at heart, and typically leave the music reviews to those who are more qualified. However, I find that I simply cannot keep my mouth shut on this one. Spektor has revived my faith in music. She is fresh, and new, and unlike anyone else I have heard lately. Call me crazy, but being a child of the 80s, she puts me in mind of Cyndi Lauper with all of her seemingly quirky and funloving antics. With all of the poseur garbage coming out in the last seven (or so) years, I can only say that I find Regina Spektor to be fresh, fun, and for once, unique. Forget downloading! This is a CD you must own.

I listen to this CD over and over again in the car and never tire of it. It's so unlike anything else out there, but in the best way possible. Regina and her piano are a match made in heaven. Buy and listen, often.