Regina Spektor - Home Before and After

  by Zena Grieg

published: 8 / 9 / 2022

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Review

Moscow-born, New York residing singer-songwriter Regina Spektor has released her eighth album, the first in six years. Co-produced with John Congleton, ‘Home, Before And After’ is less quirky than her previous records. Themes range from love and loss to a critique of power and misogyny, underlain by a reflective meditativeness in some songs, complemented by a mix of genres from ballads through a sprinkling of hip-hop to pop. Highlights of this ten-track collection include: the powerful, string-laden, drumbeat-driven lead single ‘Becoming All Alone’, an emotive track about loneliness counterpointed wittily by a chance encounter with God who takes her out for a beer: “And we didn’t even have to pay/’Cause God is God/and he’s revered”; the vibrant funk and uneasy urgency of ‘Up The Mountain’ seeking existential answers in the natural world; ‘Raindrops’ a delicate piano-led declaration of longing; the mesmerizing ‘SugarMan’ with its caustic lines: “I’m not your doll, I’m not your pet/But I’m not my own ever since we met”; the jazzy, nine-minute ‘Spacetime Fairytale’ musing about time, life and meaning:”Pages burn, but words return/Just watch the flames and you will learn”; the inventive and poetic ballad ‘Coin’ with its theatrical sound, about the contrasting outcomes of giving cash to a shaman, a scientist, a president and a baby who “swallowed it whole” and finally to a lover: “You smiled and said, “Oh, you shouldn’t have/But your eyes spoke louder than your mouth/Your eyes said thank you, your eyes said love”; and the closer the whimsical, satirical ‘Loveology’ with Spektor in the guise of a schoolteacher dealing in ‘ologies’, the plaintive final line resonating: “Forgive me-ology”. “I tend to live in a world of miniatures, so even my biggest work feels like a blink to me” Spektor said in an interview. Playful, unpredictable and sometimes heart-wrenching, ‘Home, Before And After’ is an experimental odyssey of musical moments, a shifting and impacting kaleidoscope of sound and emotion..

Track Listing:-

1 Becoming All Alone
2 Up the Mountain
3 One Man's Prayer
4 Raindrops
5 Sugarman
6 What Might Have Been
7 Spacetime Fairytale
8 Coin
9 Loveology
10 Through a Door

Band Links:-

https://reginaspektor.com/
https://www.facebook.com/reginaspektor
https://twitter.com/respektor

Label Links:-

http://www.warnerbrosrecords.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/warnerbrosrec

Play in YouTube:-

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