Begin to Hope – Regina Spektor
I had high hopes when I first heard Regina Spektor. Sadly they fell to earth with a smack after I heard this album.
One or two songs on here are ok. The rest….well I guess I’d need to be a bigger fan. She is kind of cute looking but yeah….that’s not a reason to buy an album really is it.
Just like Blur and Oasis were the sound of the 90s in the UK, Eels, to me, were the sound of the 90s and noughties for the grungy gritty indie yoof types. Ne’er a film or a television programme about teens or early 20 somethings would be broadcast or shown without some Eels writhing about on the soundtrack.
I like this album. There are a number of good tracks that automatically whisk me back to the midwest of America of the time that I never visited due to my opposition to the dictatorship of George Bush.
Remember those days way back when, when you may have played with a music keyboard for the first time? When you learnt that you could make sequences and layer and loop? And you made some interesting dance songs?
This is an album of when someone did the same.
A little unfair though. This is a little bit more professional than that. SoLaRiS (the capitalisation is important!) are a band who I stumbled across on the fabulous Jamendo website. I’m very keen on bands who use social media and technological opportunities to promote themselves from the crumby garage band practices to the center of public awareness. Jamendo does that. Much like Peoplesound did in the 90s and noughties.
Beautiful Darkness grows on you like a yeast infection and before you know it you’re looking for other stuff by the band.
