Review Summary: Likely the best pop album of the entire year, Remember Us to Life continues Regina Spektor's phenomenal streak of quality releases.
It’s incredible how many emotions a piano can illustrate through the vision of a gifted artist, and Regina Spektor has made sure that just about all of them can be pulled off effectively. Between the sentimental delicacy of “Samson” or “Firewood,” the angry and menacing tones of “The Ballad of a Politician,” or the plethora of bizarre character vignettes she’s crafted over the years, Regina has basically reinvented the role of the ivories in modern popular music. Despite this, she’s always had a penchant for catchy melodies and fun pop jams that slide her into mainstream acceptability; of course, when she gets too close to typical mainstream conventions, her quirky vocal performances and classically-influenced piano indulgences tend to pull her back out. There’s a fascinating niche that Regina Spektor fits in, as she can slot herself into both the pop and indie communities with incredible ease; she has music for the everyman and the critic alike. But in the end, the piano is still what I consider the “main course” of Regina’s work, in both how it conveys her emotions and songwriting prowess. Despite a few detours here and there,
Remember Us to Life feels like a grand celebration of the very instrument that she holds so dear, as well as a combination of all her best traits in one single work.
The opening of “Bleeding Heart” immediately sets the tone for what we’re going to hear, with the piano and bass drum melding together with a relatively fast vocal performance from Spektor. However, the song radically shifts in mood to a fast punk-ish beat as the songstress starts shouting over the ruckus before quickly toning things down with the final line, “Never mind your bleeding heart.” One thing you’ll soon notice is that
Remember Us to Life is possibly Regina’s most diverse offering in quite a while; quiet ballads, bouncy piano-pop pieces, bombastic orchestral portions, a few cues from folk and even hip-hop… you name it, and it’s probably on the record. “Small Bill$” instantly springs to mind as an unusual tune, mixing blunt drum work with unsettling high-pitched chants and punchy strings, and yet it all works distressingly well. Regina Spektor has done quirky stuff like this before, especially on earlier efforts such as
Soviet Kitsch, but a more lavish production and mixing job allow the listener to easily digest each song despite the genre-hopping oddities. However, other songs display how expertly Regina can hop between emotions and dynamics. “The Trapper and the Furrier” needs to be heard to be believed, being a tightly coiled piece of swelling strings and tense vocals clashing against brief interjections of subtle balladry. “Obsolete” is another great demonstration of this, using both its lyricism and piano lines of alternating moods to convey both sorrow and an odd sense of triumph; it’s confusing, yet fascinating. Finally, there's "Sellers of Flowers" which goes through an insane amount of key changes to display a sense of unease, while Regina's vocals meld soft subtlety and loud theatrics in a similar vein to "Open" from
What We Saw From the Cheap Seats.
As with previous Regina Spektor releases, however, her most vulnerable and personal work often tends to be her best. With that in mind, the stripped-down ballads often tend to be the highlight…
especially “Obsolete” and “The Light.” The latter is a wonderful piano-driven piece of hope and new beginnings, supplemented with tasteful string flourishes and some of the most passionate vocal work Regina’s ever performed. There are no drums, no guitars, no bass, etc.; and the song is all the better for it. It’s a bit unfortunate that closer “The Visit” ends up being the weakest track on the album because it’s a bit of a rehash of “The Light.” It’s in the exact same key, and it shares the same instrumentation to a more homogeneous effect. However, all is forgiven when listening to “Grand Hotel,” a 6/8-time ballad with an amazing command of dynamics and songwriting variety. The orchestration is beautiful, the waltz-like piano chords are well-chosen among the sweeping strings, and the overarching atmosphere is one of both mild playfulness and a sense of grandiosity. Considering the song is only three minutes long, that’s quite impressive. Regina’s ballads just seem to bring out an elegance and “realness” that balances out the quirkier tracks nicely, and this tradition isn’t lost with
Remember Us to Life.
I don’t usually try to use a first-person perspective often in reviews, but I feel as though I need to for a moment. It pains me to know there is still such a large group of people who continue to utter broad statements such as, “music is dead” or “music was much better back in my day” while records of this caliber are still being released. There’s so much artistry, raw emotion, and quality songwriting in Regina’s newest effort that it simply shouldn’t go unnoticed, and it ranks among her best work yet. Perhaps it doesn’t top albums such as
Begin to Hope or
Soviet Kitsch, but it’s still a superb piece of indie pop. For the people I mentioned above: I strongly encourage you to open your mind and check this album out if you need proof that popular music is alive and well.
