Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Mature, yet so Innocent January 4, 2007
VC (Florida)
38 out of 38 found this review helpful
This is the one of the most beautiful albums. So much imagery flows through one's mind as one pictures Regina alone with her piano delivering every note, every word.. it's so gorgeous. And humorous. And smooth yet quirky and intelligent yet child-like. All done in one take, without any commercial compromises.
1. Samson - I prefer this version over the redone one in Begin to Hope. It a bit slower, a little more honest, passionate and melodic.
2. Oedipus - Based on a historical character (like Samsom) starts off melodic and speeds up around the chorus then slows and ups once again. The tempo and style changes constantly.
3. Prisoners - Has a wonderful ending, vocal surprises, and that cleverly played piano. Quite edgy.
4. Reading Time With Pickle - Breathtakingly quirky. Haunting. Powerful vocals.
5 Consequence of Sounds - I love the simple instrumentation and her voice demands your attention. The vocal delivery carries this song all the way to the top. It's very hip-hop, very lyrically smart. This song has such an invigorating style.
6. Daniel Cowman - Very eccentric. Done in a narrative manner, her vocal and music style changes constantly. It's remarkable, unlike any other song.
7. Bon Idee - Beautiful song, I love the truth in the lyrics.
8. Aching to Pupate - The most refreshing and charming song I've heard in ages. It's all acapella.
9. Lounge - Jazzier than the rest. Her car impression is awesome. Broo-Broo-Brooommm!
10. Lacrimosa - Edgy. Has a jaunty, jumpy piano and sounds somewhat classical. Very original.
11. Lulliby - Dark and gorgeous. My least favorite, but it's indeed beautiful. Very intimate.
12. Ne Me Quitter Pas - Fun and entertaining. Cheery even, the perfect ending to a wonderfully executed album.
I did not rate the tracks as they're all so different beyond categorization, it felt unfair somehow. Each song is it's own genre and they hold your attention, either by Regina's voice or the only featured instrument - the piano. Magical album. Artsy. Catchy.
Her songs June 25, 2007
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
Though you would never know it, Regina Spektor's recent hit album was actually her fourth, not her second.
One of those two "lost" albums was "Songs," an appropriate name for a collection of raw, beautifully simple little antifolk songs. The singer-songwriter spins out her little tunes around quirky vocals and exquisitely elusive, exuberant songwriting -- a truly astounding little album.
"You are my sweetest downfall/I loved you first, I loved you first/Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth..." The first song opens with a gentle piano melody, as Spektor sings of a deep, simple love that no one remembers ("And history books forgot about us and the Bible didnt mention us"), but which is no less striking for its anonymity.
Well, enough love. Then it's off into the taut bizarrity of "Oedipus," about a young prince trying to make himself stand out. And the songs that follow are no less unique: rambling a capella, dark piano songs about wintry flowers, trippling piano pop with staccato vocals, and gentle ballads about death row prisoners.
It ends with "Ne Me Quitte Pas," a quirky pop ode to various cities and districts, including New York ("And if you are the ghost of New York City/then won't you stick around"), Paris ("I love Paris in the rain...") and Paris. Where the first song looked back fondly on a love affair, the last song frolicks in the present.
Well, it really says something about Regina Spektor that she can write a song about pickle love... and it not only works, but it's charming and cute. "Songs" is full of such songs -- songs about ordinary things, but they're seen through a lens that reveals the beauty, sorrow and weirdness of them.
The only real instrument here is Spektor's trusty piano, which would sound kind of bare bones for most singers. But she can make it do whatever she likes -- it trips, hiccups, ripples in waves, growls, and clumps in little dense pockets. "Samson" is the closest to a "normal" melody: a gentle, full-bodied melody that unfolds smoothly, but still hiccups occasionally.
Spektor's quirky, high voice is as versatile as her piano -- she croons, trills, soars, rambles, groans, and goes "brrrrrrrrr!". Her lyrics are elusive and hard to decipher at times, drawing as much from Greek mythology as from NYC life -- in one song she's meditating that "love is the answer to a question that I/have forgotten," and the next she's fantasizing about how, "I will open up my trenchcoat/they will see the butterflies/dangling like fake rolexes."
"Songs" is exactly what it says it is -- songs. But Regina Spektor fills these simple little tunes with quirky stylings and brilliant lyrics. A treasure.
great cd January 16, 2007
Michael J. Rich (penny saver)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
What an awesome cd to have if you are a Regina fan,I cannot figure out why she would not want this gem out in the first place.Glad someone convinced her to put it out for the fans
Her best March 20, 2008
palewill (Iowa)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
After buying Soviet Kitsch a couple years ago I became very interested in hearing more of her work. I eventually found this album and another previous one called 11:11. I currently own all four of her albums and this is by far the best one. It's quirky, beautiful, and fun. It is one of those rare albums where I can listen to the entire CD. There are songs that are not quite as good as others but I never feel the need to skip any of them.
This album is also just her and her piano unlike the latest drum beat riddled Fidelity. Don't get me wrong, Fidelity is a decent album but I think it is missing the uniqueness found on previous albums like this one.
Since Songs is becoming a difficult album to find I would get it while you can.
Don't miss your chance at this apple. April 4, 2009
Benjamin C. Harman (Coldwater, MI USA)
Songs is Regina Spektor's second self-published album, 11:11 being her first. Until this offering, Songs has been utterly, completely ungettable except by questionable download or bootlegging it from someone else's bootleg. It's sad because Songs (and 11:11) include many of Regina Spektor's fans' favorite songs that either aren't available at all or as Regina Spektor originally recorded sans some producer's idea of studio improvement heard on her following three mass releases: Soviet Kitsch, Begin to Hope, and Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers.
On this album, Regina fleshes out her unique "anti-folk" style. These were the songs that carried the voice of this Russian born, highly educated, Jewess out of New York's East Village to the world at large. Regina gives us her wonderful brand of beautiful weird and sometimes goofy vocals over her classically trained piano playing and percussion performances- or not, when she goes a capella.
Songs is a critically important album as Regina Spektor sets herself apart as a literary songwriter and performer like no other and, while 5 years after production, remains an artifact of a still post-contemporary movement influencing music today as others follow. For Regina Spektor fans, having and listening to Songs is imperative to understand both Regina Spektor's musical beginnings and her true talent, stripped from the adulteration of aforementioned meddling producers, editors, etc. that seem hell bent on making her music mainstream. In countless ways, Songs is better than anything you will hear on Begin to Hope or even Soviet Kitsch, because it's raw Regina written and published by her own hand. It's unfortunate that others, even her own people, are pushing her into some kind of Tori Amos / Fionna Apple genre, when her music is so far from that - no disrespect to Tori Amos and Fionna Apple who have their own important place as songwriters and performers.
The downside of this purchase is that what I paid for was a legitimate Songs CD as it was released. However, what I got was a bootleg copy, albeit a very high quality recorded bootleg, mailed to me from Korea that included only the front and back cover art from Songs copied on the two sides of the front insert. That means my well-intended purchase does nothing to further Regina Spektor's cause as a musician. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything, because while I was duped, now you won't guiltlessly be.
On the other hand, the big sales of these bootlegs of this otherwise unobtainable album maybe will send a loud and clear message to Regina Spektor and her people to re-release both Songs and 11:11, either individually or a double album set. A message they somehow miss as worldwide fans somehow mysteriously just know the words to sing loudly along with Regina those songs only found on these rare 1,000-copy self-released records. Heeded, her fans would at last have a legal venue by which to procure importances from her early catalogue of lyrical stories. Maybe we'll finally get songs like "Back of a Truck" and "2.99 Cent Blues" in a high-quality format and without having to break the law to get them. ...Until then, what else to do? Starve???
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