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4.0 out of 5 stars
This is how it works, November 20, 2006
This review is from: On the Radio Pt. 2 (Audio CD)
"Begin to Hope" is Regina Spektor's most radio-friendly album in her quirky career. Without abandoning her anti-folk sound, she tries out perkier melodies and some decidedly catchy little songs. One of the most infectious songs of that album is "On the Radio," a catchy little pop song, which is paired here with a live -- and very different -- ballad.
"This is how it works/It feels a little worse/Than when we drove our hearse/Right through that screaming crowd," Spektor murmurs, over a quirky piano tune. It's a bit different from her others -- laced with shimmering synth, as well as some jazz-inspred drums. This is Spektor's poppiest tune so far, but not MTV pop (gah!). Its rippling music and offbeat melody make it stick in your head.
She sings of sleeping DJs, attacks from "ancient bees," and songs that run over and over, but she doesn't care because "it's a pretty song." Then halfway through, she switches topics to love and life in general: "You laugh until you cry/You cry until you laugh/And everyone must breathe/Until their dying breath," and then about love and relationships in particular:
"You peer inside yourself/You take the things you like/And try to love the things you took/And then you take that love/you made/And stick it into some/Someone else's heart/Pumping someone else's blood..."
For the second song of the single, Spektor includes the live version of another song on that album, "20 Years of Snow." This is her anti-folk style, not pop -- a shimmering piano melody that ripples up and down like ocean waves, with Spektor's voice rolling with it.
The song tells of southern bayous, moss, waltzes, and "dirty old men/and navigators with their mappy maps." Spektor croons some rather cryptics lyrics about "His daughter is twenty years of snow falling/She's twenty years of strangers looking into each other's eyes/She's twenty years of clean/She never truly hated anyone or anything." A warbling twitter, and that's it.
Spektor really makes good use of her piano here, with it either being catchy, or rolling along with her quirky vocals. And her off-key voice is the most charming thing about these songs -- she can sing virtually any kind of music, without ever sounding like anyone but herself. Little creaks and warbles give it extra character.
Spektor is one of the few artists to successfully "go pop" without losing her unique sound, and this single shows all her strong points at once.
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