Longtime fans hoping for a shallow return to her quirky anti-folk roots will be disappointed once more by Regina Spektor's new album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats (out May 29)… though less than they might have been with Far, her over-produced (literally-- Mike Elizondo, David Kahne, Jacknife Lee and ELO's Jeff Lynne all cooked in that album's proverbial kitchen) and squeaky-clean 2009 album. Working once again with Elizondo, Spektor approaches her double handful of new songs (plus a few old ones… more on that in a moment) with streamlined focus, largely eschewing the idiosyncratic flamboyance of her pre-Sire work.
Get Wistfully Sad With New Regina Spektor Song "Small Town Moon"
Her gradual shift towards "proper" record making is best exemplified by "Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)," a bouncy interpolation of the Jacques Brel standard that first appeared on Spektor's 2002 indie album Songs. In its sleek new incarnation, the song is an almost painfully cheery rush of chiptune electronics, punchy horns and sleek piano chords—how much (or little) you care about its shiny reinvention will largely determine how you feel about the rest of the album. The "old Regina" makes a brief cameo appearance on the spastic "Oh Marcello," in which she channels an accent-heavy Italian mamma and lifts a not-so-subtle line from "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," but for the most part, What We Saw is a (mostly) down to earth slice of lush, inventive piano pop/rock.
Listen To Regina Spektor Get Painfully Cute On New Song "Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)"
On opener "Small Town Moon," Regina muses, "Today we're younger than we ever gonna be" over a gorgeous major/minor key piano chord change. On the equally stirring "Firewood," she quips, "The piano is not firewood yet," using her own to quietly build up towards a dramatic gospel-waltz climax. There's claustrophobic vibes to spare on first single "All The Rowboats," while the evocative "How" channels '50s high school proms and long summer nights with its breezy 6/8 tempo and funereal orchestral intro. Things get eerie in a hurry on "Ballad Of A Politician" and "Open"—the former boasts lines like "Shake what your mama gave you, you know it won't last | You're gonna taste the ground real soon, you're gonna taste the grass," while the latter's heartbreaking refrain ("Potentially lovely, perpetually human") drifts in and out of a gorgeously bleak, impressionistic piano arrangement like a half-forgotten dream.
Watch Regina Spektor Do Her Thing In The New "All The Rowboats" Video
Only the carefree "Patron Saint" (Fiona Apple comparisons are apt and inevitable) feels like a minor misstep— at a painfully brief 37 minutes, the album comes to a brisk end with the playful gushing of "The Party" ("You're like a big parade through town—you leave such a mess, but you're such fun") and campfire acoustic guitar strums of "Jessica," the album's lone step back from the piano bench. There's nothing quite as wily or unpredictable as, say, "Chemo Limo," but Regina's ability to remain so fresh and loose (lyrically and melodically) under layer after layer of recording studio sheen is a commendable feat all its own. What We Saw From The Cheap Seats won't blow the socks off the die-hards, though it's sure to snare a few curious newcomers. Just imagine—when they finally make their way back to Songs and Soviet Kitsch, the rookies won't know what hit 'em.
SumOlogy: A little more off-the-cuff than Far, but still miles away from the zany spontaneity of her early work… though who can complain with songs this good?
Grade: A-
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Follow Brett Warner on Twitter: @Erasurehead
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