Go Listen to Regina Spektor

It has only been about three months since I have even heard of Regina Spektor. Born in the Soviet Union in 1980 and immigrating with her parents to the U.S. (and locating in New York City) in 1988, she is quite an extraordinary musical talent, an accomplished pianist and vocalist. Her albums, totaling five so far, are all of her own compositions. Her style is usually a fusion of disparate forms, including jazz, rock, hip-hop, adult alternative, rock, folk, and something that I can only term as "quirky". But more than anything, Regina Spektor has captured my listening imagination, even more so than did Sufjan Stevens a year ago. She is my #1 top favorite musical act right now, so it was interesting to find out that she recently performed solo for President Obama, Vice-President Biden, and their families at the White House. It's nice to know that the folks up there nowadays have some musical taste.

As I usually do in this sort of article, I am listing my favorite Regina Spektor songs, along with the albums they are from in brackets. I have all of her works and am eagerly waiting for more. I noticed that, after her first two albums, which were exclusively of her voice and piano, the last three (which I like more) contained many songs with a wide variety of instrumental accompaniment. But all five albums are quite good. Anyway, here are my favorites:

#1 Us [Soviet Kitsch (2004)]
#2 Man of a Thousand Faces [Far (2009)]
#3 20 Years of Snow [Begin to Hope (2006)]
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#4 The Calculation [F]
#5 Folding Chair [F]
#6 Better [BtH]
#7 Human of the Year [F]
#8 Pavlov's Daughter [11:11 (2001)]
#9 Hotel Song [BtH]
#10 That Time [BtH]
#11 The Flowers [SK]
#12 Samson [Songs (2002), BtH]
#13 Genius Next Door [F]
#14 Edit [BtH]
#15 Dance Anthem of the 80's [F]
#16 Laughing With [F]
#17 Wallet [F]
#18 Après Moi [BtH]
#19 Lady [BtH]
#20 Reading Time with Pickle [S]

By the way, I must remark that, although I like just about everything that Regina Spektor has done, the top three songs Us, Man of a Thousand Faces, and 20 Years of Snow, are much greater than the rest, in my estimation. So if you are "pressed for time", try to see if you can't at least hear those three.

I like Regina Spektor's music so much that I have all of her songs on my MP3 and currently listen only to her songs and to none of the many other quality artists whose songs I have on my player. That should say something about how good she is. And once again I am confounded by how broadcast radio has virtually ignored her, just as with Sufjan Stevens. The genre that she seems to have been placed in is either "indie" or "adult alternative". At least her songs are played on cable radio and the Internet.