Salve Regina
I'd like to celebrate the fact that I've disposed of 12 papers today (go me!) by pimping one of my newest favorite musicians, who I hope everybody will give a try: Regina Spektor.
Recently, I've been tempted to ditch my Daily Mix on the iPod and just put my collection of Regina on constant repeat. I have no idea how widely known she is, or how many of you have heard of her, but extra pimpage is never amiss.
Regina is...how to describe her? I suppose she'd be classified as "jazz" due to the sheer surreality and extemporaneous, open-mike-poetry quality of her music. She isn't for everyone. I didn't really get it at first, but the more I listened, the more I loved it.
Regina's voice isn't pretty, or melodic. It's sharp and kind of atonal. The accompaniment is sparse, and that's describing it generously. Most of the time it's just piano. And not big rich piano like Tori Amos. No, extremely sparingly applied piano. A song that just came up on the pod, "The Consequence of Sounds," is accompanied solely by single-note plinks of the piano and percussion that is literally Regina's hand slapping on her thigh (that's what it sounds like, anyway). A few of her songs...a select few...have more extensive accompaniment, but that sparseness is almost exactly what makes her so hypnotic. There is rarely, if ever, percussion. If it's there, it's very primitive and sounds like somebody tapping a single drumstick on the side of the piano.
I love love love it.
A few songs I'd recommend for Regina newbies:
Go. Get thee to iTunes.
ETA: It's been brought to my attention that "Samson" is not available on iTunes. I got it off Etomi (a LimeWire service). But if anybody wants it, leave a comment and an email and I'll yousendit.
Recently, I've been tempted to ditch my Daily Mix on the iPod and just put my collection of Regina on constant repeat. I have no idea how widely known she is, or how many of you have heard of her, but extra pimpage is never amiss.
Regina is...how to describe her? I suppose she'd be classified as "jazz" due to the sheer surreality and extemporaneous, open-mike-poetry quality of her music. She isn't for everyone. I didn't really get it at first, but the more I listened, the more I loved it.
Regina's voice isn't pretty, or melodic. It's sharp and kind of atonal. The accompaniment is sparse, and that's describing it generously. Most of the time it's just piano. And not big rich piano like Tori Amos. No, extremely sparingly applied piano. A song that just came up on the pod, "The Consequence of Sounds," is accompanied solely by single-note plinks of the piano and percussion that is literally Regina's hand slapping on her thigh (that's what it sounds like, anyway). A few of her songs...a select few...have more extensive accompaniment, but that sparseness is almost exactly what makes her so hypnotic. There is rarely, if ever, percussion. If it's there, it's very primitive and sounds like somebody tapping a single drumstick on the side of the piano.
I love love love it.
A few songs I'd recommend for Regina newbies:
- "Samson" This is the song that got me into it...after a few repetitions, it haunted me for days. More melodic than her usual stuff.
- "Us" This song actually has orchestral background! Zowie! Also quite melodic.
- "Flyin" This song is very fun, and sounds far jazzier than her usual stuff.
- "Buildings" A great example of her sometimes nonsensical lyrics and repetitive choruses, but a toe-tapper
- "Love Affair" Typically sparse and jazzy.
Go. Get thee to iTunes.
ETA: It's been brought to my attention that "Samson" is not available on iTunes. I got it off Etomi (a LimeWire service). But if anybody wants it, leave a comment and an email and I'll yousendit.