Posted: Monday, June 26, 2006 7:00 pm
On “Begin To Hope,” her fourth release and major label debut, Russian-born, New York-based singer/songwriter Regina Spektor moves from stripped-down anti-folk toward the mainstream and puts herself directly in a league with Norah Jones, Tori Amos andFiona Apple.
Regina Spektor - “Begin To Hope” - 3½ stars
A varied disc that moves from gorgeous ballads, such as “Samson” and “Field Below,” to the pure pop of “Better,” a bluesy Billie Holiday tribute appropriately called “Lady,” to the haunting closer, “Summer in the City.” “Better,” which features Nick Valenti of The Strokes, and “That Time” are guitar-rooted rockers. But the rest of the record is rooted in Spektor’s piano — she’s classically trained. And that sound is augmented by the production of David Kahne, who has most recently worked with The Strokes and Paul McCartney and is obviously responsible for the more mainstream sound.
But what hasn’t changed is Spektor’s idiosyncratic, quirky vocals and lyrics. She crams words together here, jumps and leaps like Bjork there, heads for Kate Bush territory, then gets sultry. Her lyrics are compelling scrambled, mixing Biblical allusions with lines about little bags of cocaine and some Russian on the rolling, dark “Apres Moi.”
“Begin To Hope” is one of those records where you’re not likely to love every song, but it’s impossible not to really connect with something.
— L. Kent Wolgamott , GZO
Hot Chip - “The Warning” - 3½ stars
With their second full-length release, the London techno-geek quintet Hot Chip steps up with an album of chilled-out electro-pop that beats with a human heart. Singer Alexis Taylor’s light, airy vocals are well suited both to beeping, squiggling odes to the joys of repetition such as “Over and Over” and to the uncharacteristically aggressive and ironically titled “Careful.” Songs like “Colours” match breezy melodies to bubbling synth sounds that go down so smoothly it’s easy to miss the hints of menace, such as the title cut’s promise to “break your legs, and chop off your head.” — Dan DeLuca, Knight Ridder Newspapers
Corinne Bailey Rae - “Corinne Bailey Rae” - 3 stars
Already a sensation in her native England, Rae has a breathy, baby-doll voice that could easily come across as precious. But it is so perfectly wed to the sultry material on her debut that it sounds fantastic.
There are a couple of poppy up-tempo numbers such as “Put Your Records On,” but the highlights are radiant ballads such as “Like a Star” and “ ’Till It Happens to You.” On these songs, Rae suggests an R&B version of Norah Jones with a spellbinding style that is at once soulful and gossamer. All she needs to work on is her consistency. This CD contains a handful of great songs and a lot of filler.
— David Hiltbrand
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Scott Walker - “Drift” - 4 stars
Over the last 20 years, Scott Walker, once tagged a “godlike genius,” has grown darker and more abstract. His music has become an exceedingly personal brand of avant rocking minimal classicism; his lyrics, viscerally imagistic; his voice, both a theatrical, histrionic whoop and an eerie, lisping croon.
On the first track of Drift, “Cossacks Are,” which is like a dark comedy without the laughs, Walker coos through tangled strings of “a chilling exploration of erotic consumption” as if describing the unwieldy shape of things to hum.
Throughout the thunder of “Psoriatic” or the din of “Clara” and “A Lover Loves,” Walker’s baritone warbles and ducks in time to diabolically noir melodies and tiny, thumping rhythms that dip and rise slowly, morosely.
Genius? Yes. Godlike? Ditto. — A. D. Amorosi, Knight Ridder Newspapers
COUNTRY/ROOTS
Dr. John - “Mercernary: The Songs of Johnny Mercer” - 3 stars
Near the end of his celebration of one of the greats of American song, Dr. John offers the set’s only original: “I Ain’t No Johnny Mercer.” Well, yes. But as he “fonkifies” these Mercer tunes in his inimitable New Orleans fashion, it’s clear that the Crescent City native born Mac Rebennack continues to occupy his own special place in American music.
Maybe it’s their shared Deep South heritage or the blues underpinnings of some of the numbers, but the Mercer songs lend themselves better to the Dr. John treatment than Duke Ellington’s did on the piano man’s uneven 2000 tribute, “Duke Elegant.” “Blues in the Night,” “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “Lazy Bones,” “Moon River” — most of the selections are steeped in Dr. John’s rich, Big Easy gumbo, the lively warmth of the R&B/jazz/funk playing off the hipster cool of a growly voice and its thick swamp patois. — Nick Cristiano, Knight Ridder Newspapers
The Yayhoos - “Put the Hammer Down” - 3½ starsThis is a rock ‘n’ roll record — a loose, loud and (mostly) fun one. The kind of rock ‘n’ roll the pop mainstream no longer has anything to do with.
The Yayhoos are a summit of sorts — the four distinct personalities all sing and write and have individual careers. “Put the Hammer Down” resurrects the special chemistry they sparked on their 2001 debut, “Fear Not the Obvious.” Amid a couple of left-field covers (“Love Train,” “Roam”), Dan Baird again specializes in greasy riff-rockers, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel changes the pace and the mood with a couple of hurtin’ tunes, and wild man Keith Christopher plays against type with the album’s quietest number.
Terry Anderson, meanwhile, again comes across as the band’s real linchpin: His songs reflect the band’s range, from the heartfelt and catchy “All Dressed Up” to the bluntly horny “Gettin’ Drunk,” which is about, well, getting undressed. It’s summer: Crank it up. — N.C.