Regina Spektor - Far
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Far is Regina Spektor’s third major label release and, counting her self-released efforts, brings her total number of full-length albums to five. Those self-released albums probably shouldn’t count, however, as it was just songs that she recorded on her own to sell at early live shows…they contain some interesting material, but she really didn’t come into her own until 2004’s Soviet Kitsch. Two years later she overshadowed that album with Begin to Hope and now she’s done it again with Far. This is the most accessible music that Spektor has ever recorded and it might have something to do with the fact that she recruited four different producers to help with the music.
Mike Elizondo, someone that has worked with an immense number of artists, including Dr. Dre, Fiona Apple and Maroon 5 – just to name a few, produced the first two songs. “The Calculation” was recorded as a jam session in a single take and “Eet” is the first of three standout tracks from him. Next up is the best track from producer Jeff Lynne, responsible for, among many other things, Xanadu…and somehow the abandonment of the tempo in the chorus of “Blue Lips” doesn’t hurt the song enough to make it unlikeable, but a more appropriate chorus could make this an unstoppable track. “Machine” is another great one from Elizondo and “Laughing With” is a clever track produced by Garret “Jacknife” Lee, who has previously worked with Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, REM and U2. Spektor’s producer from Begin to Hope, David Kahne, lends his talents to one good song (“One More Time With Feeling”) and the only bad one on the album (“Human Of The Year”). Elizondo wraps the album up with “Man Of A Thousand Faces,” the final notable song.
- Score
- 80%
Regina Spektor is slightly less quirky on Far than she has been on past offerings, but her eccentricities are still prominent on almost everything that she writes. She claims to still be learning about the process of making an album and says that if she had the option that she would work with even more people for the next one.
