Regina Spektor – All the Rowboats

I love Regina Spektor’s music, generally. Love the success that she had with Begin to Hope in 2006, and how she seemed to be the choice for Hollywood people whenever they needed a song for their soundtracks — you’ve probably heard Better [MV] and Us [MV] a few times on the screen.

But I was greatly disappointed with her 2009 album, Far. If I wasn’t on the record with it, I thought she sounded like a rehashed version of herself and compared her to Sara Bareilles, who I think is a popularized rehashed version of Regina Spektor. The quality of that album sounded like how Spektor thought people wanted her to be — but not her earlier fans.

I’m not one of them, but if you ever have the chance to listen to Spektor’s Soviet Kitsch as well as Songs, you’ll realize why fans were disappointed. Just take a quick listen to something like The Consequence of Sounds [1] [Xiami] — that raw explosive playfulness was lost somewhere in the production of the album.

Apparently, her upcoming album titled What We Saw from the Cheap Seats — out on May 29th — seems to go back to the basics of what her sound was. Then again, her old fans aren’t happy with it. Is Regina Spektor too commercial now? I don’t care, the song seems good and has just created some expectations for the new album~

The music video for All the Rowboats was directed by Adria Petty.