SOUNDTRACK: REGINA SPEKTOR-Soviet Kitsch (2004).
After the poppy, polished joy of Far, I went back and decided to check out the one other Regina Spektor album I knew of–Soviet Kitsch. This album has always stuck with me as an interesting title. I ordered it from Amazon and was bummed to get a little cardboard sleeve rather than an entire disc (her artwork is really nice). So I was a little biased against this disc from the start. The music also doesn’t have any of the polish and sleekness of Far. So it took a while for me to see the beauty within.
This album is largely simple piano (with strings and other addition), but it’s a much more raw album (akin to something like Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes).
“Ode to Divorce” is a quiet piano song with some catchy moments. “Poor Little Rich Boy” has some interesting percussion to accompany the piano. And in this song you know that she’s in a slightly different territory than Tori Amos, which is good–the feeling is similar but the end result is unique. Lyrically the album explores different ideas and on this song the repeated refrain of “you’re so young you’re so god damn young” is a little unsettling. “Carbon Monoxide” introduces a more full sound (bass and drums). And Regina shows off yet another side of her personality–playful, flirtatious and now almost childish (“C’mon, daddy.”)
“The Flowers” introduces another new aspect to the disc–more aggressive/borderline classical piano playing (rapid, loud notes). It suits her style quite well and this song is a definite highlight. The end of the song has a very Russian-style nonsense syllable sing along which is very fun. “Us” adds strings to the song and some great sing along parts. “Sailor Song” is a funny song from a sailors perspective with the sing-along shanty chorus “Mary Anne’s a bitch” (complete with broken glass sounds).
The next song “****” is a whispered little conversation in which a young girl asks Regina when the next song is coming. It makes the next song, “Your Honor” even more loud. It really stands out on this disc because it is a full on punk song with screamed vocals and band work from Kill Kenada (who I don’t know anything about). The song is about getting in a fight to defend a woman’s honor. The slow piano middle section features the amusing question “gargle with peroxide a steak for your eye but I’m a vegetarian so it’s a frozen pizza pie…you fight for my honor but I just don’t know why.:”
“Ghost of Corporate Future” has a kind of lullaby feel and some amusing lyrics, ” When he gets to the crowded subway platform/He takes off both of his shoes/He steps right into somebody’s fat loogie/And everyone who sees him says “ew”/Everyone who sees him says “ew”/But he doesn’t care/Cause last night he got a visit/From the ghost of corporate future/The ghost said take off both your shoes/Whatever chances you get/Especially when they’re wet.” It’s all sung in a manic style over a quiet piano melody.
“Chemo Limo” is certainly the highlight of the disc. It’s 6 minutes long and is quite dramatic. The basic premise is that dying from cancer sucks, so she’s going to live instead: “I couldn’t afford chemo like I couldn’t afford a limo/And on any given day I’d rather ride a limousine.” There are several sections in the song–allowing Regina to show off her dynamic and dramatic vocal range (serious falsettos) and very impassioned sections, “Oh my God Barbara she looks just like my mom” She even does some (very mild) beatboxing at the end of the song. “Somedays” is a pretty, simple ballad, with some great vocals although it kind of gets lost at the end of the disc. Although I was not that into this record when I first got it, repeated listens revealed wonderful surprises inside.
[READ: July 15, 2012] Canary in a Cat House
This is Kurt Vonnegut’s first collection of short stories. It is currently out of print. That’s not a big deal because almost all of the stories were later collected in Welcome to the Monkeyhouse. But I thought it would be fun to read them in the original book. When it came in from the library I was surprised at how tiny it was. But what was really surprising was how small the print and how small the margins were. They really crammed stories into collections back then!
These stories were all written in the 1950s and what was also surprising to me was how serious and unfunny some of those first stories were. I realize that these were some of his first works, but the Vonnegut voice is so distinctive–a misanthropy tempered by jokes and absurdity, that I was surprised that some of these stories were not only serious but seriously emotional as well. It’s been clear from all of his stories that WWII impacted his life tremendously (as one would expect), but in these early stories he talks very deliberately about violence and the cold war and the aftermath of WWII. It’s pretty intense. By the end of the book the more typical Vonnegut voice surfaces–sci-fi kinds of stories with dark humor involved. It’s quite a collection. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 