Regina Spektor - Live InLondon

Thu 27th Jan, 2011 in Music Reviews

Equally introspective, gorgeous, flippant, fun and sublime, Live In London showcases Regina Spektor’s loveable and quirky lyrics (think tangerines, cereal boxes, Shakespeare hair and eyelashes, to name a few) with more poignant observations about love lost, gained and shared. A string ensemble accompanies her and when she combines this with an angelic voice and 9-foot long Steinway piano (save a few songs where she plays electric guitar or keyboard) the concert makes for rather engrossing entertainment.

Spektor performs lots of Norah Jones-esque piano pop plus other tracks that could be a cross between Lior’s layered string tapestries and Elton John or Billy Joel’s piano man ballads. Her voice is as sweet and pure as Joni Mitchell or Sarah Blasko’s and seems to be forever reaching up to the high heavens and sounding as perfect live as it does in the studio.

There are sing-alongs ( Folding Chair, Eet ); big hits ( Fidelity, Samson ); a rootin’ tootin’ country romp resembling June Carter Cash on crack ( Love, You’re A Whore ) and some a cappella cheekiness ( Silly Eye-Colour Generalizations ) delivered with a giggle, some airy vocals and a speaker-stack full of positive energy. And then there’s the feelings of walking arm-in-arm towards a gorgeous sunset while carrying a suitcase full of fragments and collected memories ( That Time, Laughing With). The 23-song DVD plus extras include some short glimpses at life on the road while the album features 22 cuts. The breadth and quality of the musicianship on offer means they probably could have offered the two things as separate packages and still had fans queueing up to buy and enjoy every minute.

What Spektor and Co. didn’t know was that amidst all this frivolity and revelry, a darker event was about to transpire. The band’s leader and cellist, Daniel Cho went swimming one fateful day in Switzerland the following July. He did not return. This recording is dedicated to his memory and while this tribute could have lent the package a maudlin or heavy air, back in December 2009 they were just a group that had a gay, old time putting on a show at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, simple as that. Sure, there were some hiccups along the way – microphones and other equipment broke; more mistakes than usual were made; Spektor was on a combination of no sleep, a full day of radio promotion and reassurances of no “pressure” – but the result is one charmingly, quaint live set.