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Album review: What We Saw From The Cheap Seats — Regina Spektor

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By Navneet Nagra

Seasoned eccentric Regina Spektor sends down another round of intelligent chamber pop

It’s been three years since Regina Spektor’s last studio release Far, and the wait was worth it. What We Saw From The Cheap Seats is Spektor’s second collaboration with producer Mike Elizondo, and together they have created a vibrant mix of ballads and stylized rhythms.

The first single “All the Rowboats” stands out immediately. Regina’s voice sings a futuristic, melodic tune that stays in your head for days. It’s a dark, chaotic work with deep piano and heavy drumbeats that plug right into the senses.

Spektor — an activist spotted on Wall Street during the Occupy protests — makes a strong showing of her political inspirations with “Ballad of a Politican”. The track beautifully illustrates our lovely, screwed-up world through haunting lyrics and soft piano notes. Vocal tricks are used throughout Cheap Seats, most notably in “Open” and “The Party”, and the odd methodology used to create them is Spektor’s specialty. Not only does she imitate the sounds of a trumpet during “Open”, but during the bridge she creates a completely new instrument with a demonic sound that adds further punch to an already powerful song.

Spektor’s unwavering interest in vocally pushing the envelope is what sets her apart from other songstresses. In each track, we get a chance to hear something new she’s come up with. Unafraid to experiment, Spektor’s style streams over different genres such as folk, jazz, and hip hop, all while keeping her Russian flare.

The Cheap Seats is not entirely bold and new. A few familiarities are present in the opening bars of “Small Town Moon” that bring to mind “Samson” from her 2006 record Begin to Hope, and we are reintroduced to “Don’t Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas)”, which was first released on her second album. “Don’t Leave Me” highlights Regina’s tri-lingual talents with its mainly French lyrics; as heard in Begin to Hope’s “Apres moi,” Spektor flawlessly flows through French and English to create a timeless melody.

Spektor is a master of her craft, and What We Saw From The Cheap Seats shows that she’s still got a few tricks up her sleeve and is as brilliant as ever.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society