Hail Regina

For a major label artist, Regina Spektor gets surprisingly little attention. You'd think having one of the best albums of 2004 (Soviet Kitsch) -- along with having a jazzy piano-pop sound that's similar to that of Fiona Apple and the half-million sales of her most recent album -- might be enough to make the release of Begin To Hope a major event...but this doesn't seem to be the case.

This is unfortunate because it's a really great album. Songs like "Fidelity" (available on Spektor's Myspace) and "On The Radio" have a funkiness to them that wasn't there before, while "Field Below" shows that she's not averse to incorporating some gospel influences. Meanwhile, for everyone who loved the drama and urgency of Spektor's last album, there are tracks like "Samson" and "Après Moi ". All in all, Begin To Hope sounds like the work on a very talented artist who's very quickly fulfilling all the potential she showed on her early albums -- though you'd have to search her out to discover that.

Thankfully, the rest of the world seems to be catching on. A compilation of Spektor's music was released late last year (Mary Anne Meets The Gravedigger & Other Short Stories), and she was featured on Xfm as a result. Here are the songs from that session:

1. Bobbing For Apples
2. That Time
3. Love Affair
4. Prisoners

Enjoy!