Regina Spektor: Live in London Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Regina Spektor: Live in London Blu-ray Movie Review

Regina Spektor is odd, but she's oddly endearing.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 22, 2010

Laura Nyro. Joni Mitchell. Carole King. Carly Simon. Rickie Lee Jones. Tori Amos. Alicia Keys. Norah Jones. The list of female piano playing singer-songwriters is long and illustrious and those of us who share these women’s love of keyboards, if not their gender, are often firmly under their spell when they sit down to play and sing. It’s interesting to note that for a long time women in pop and rock music were mostly thought of as “only” singers, occasionally guitar players, and that facility with keyboards came relatively late in the 1960s, at least insofar as headlining acts with Top 40 singles went. (King of course had been pounding the ivories for years behind the scenes as part of the vaunted Brill Building teams that crafted one gigantic single after another in the early rock era). A lot of these women have also written incredibly poetic and evocative lyrics. I’d personally probably put Nyro, Mitchell and Amos at the top of my list in terms of beautifully marrying music to lyric, though each of the women listed above—and a rather large selection of others I didn’t list—have their own statements and individual perspectives to present, and they often do it brilliantly within the confines of a 32 bar song. Now joining this redoubtable lineage comes Regina Spektor, an appealing Russian émigrée who has been a leader in the somewhat comically named “anti-folk” movement. Spektor has yet to enjoy the mass market acceptance of King, Mitchell, Nyro and the like, but she has scored one relatively high charting song with “Fidelity,” which has been featured in both episodic television (in Brasil) and in some stateside advertising.

Spektor’s approach to popular song is decidedly less florid than Amos’, for example. Despite a wealth of classical training, Spektor tends to work in a fairly basic diatonic idiom that sees her exploiting well worn tropes like “Heart and Soul”’s famous I-vi-IV-V setup. What sets Spektor apart from her female songwriting kin is her particular lyrical whimsy, which has her utilizing nonsense words like “eet,” as well as stuttering, buzzing and other patently strange vocal techniques which make even her sing-songiest tunes instantly memorable and often surprisingly touching. Spektor also utilizes a string quartet in a lot of her material, and that quartet is featured prominently in this Live in London Blu-ray. (In a rather shocking coda to the tour, cellist Daniel Cho drowned in Switzerland, and this Blu-ray is dedicated to his memory).

What also sets Spektor apart is her sunny disposition, with a face that seems to literally light up when she sees the acres of fans greeting her arrival at the Hammersmith Apollo in London with overwhelming shouts of acclamation. Spektor is perhaps still too young to be jaded about her increasing celebrity, but she has a comfort level and a naturalness that is very reminiscent of Carole King at times. In fact, to utilize a good old Yiddish word from both King and Spektor’s (as well as my) Jewish heritage, Spektor, like King, is hamische, i.e., “homey,” someone with whom you feel an instant and often endearing rapport. Simple, warm, relaxed, cozy—those are thesaurus synonyms for hamische, and they certainly all apply to Spektor.

The concert is a fairly simple, no frills affair with Spektor at the keys (and occasionally guitar), backed by the string quartet and a percussionist. Spektor is a facile and sunny-voiced vocalist, someone who seems strangely optimistic even when discussing a doomed love affair. Her lyrics are often odd, discursive rivulets (as opposed to streams) of consciousness, and she is not bound by passé rules of having to rhyme, other than sometimes blending together nonsense syllables which contain the same phonemes. Her arrangements are similarly spare, though the use of the strings is always well conceived and, with this quartet anyway, very well played.

This is a well directed piece, with brief interstitials showing Spektor arriving at London, doing the soundcheck, and the like. Camera coverage of the concert itself is exceptional, with a variety of angles and intercuts which consistently maintains viewer interest. Any fan who has wanted to get up close and personal with Spektor will find their vicarious thrills here in abundance.

Spektor’s set list on this London concert includes:

Introduction
On the Radio
Eet
Laughing With
Folding Chair
Aprés Moi
Blue Lips
Machine
Dance Anthem of the 80’s
Silly Eye-Color Generalizations
Wallet
The Calculation
Man of a Thousand Faces
That Time
Hotel Song
Sailor Song
Us
Fidelity
Samson
Credits

Regina Spektor: Live in London Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Live in London doesn't quite have the sharpness factor that several other recent live concert Blu-rays I've reviewed have. Whether that's due to the label (Warner/Sire), the fact that the AVC encode is presented in 1080i rather than 1080p, or the actual filming is anyone's guess, but there's a certain gauzy softness to most of this concert. It's not disagreeable, it just doesn't bristle with fine detail like several recent Columbia/Sony concert releases, for example. The stage is fairly bare here, and save for some occasional lighting effects, all we get is Regina, in a black dress, playing her instruments with the string quartet and percussionist upstage. Black levels tend to crush slightly, with medium shots leading to Regina blending in with the shadowy background, save for her alabaster skin and bright lipstick. There really isn't much color here to get excited about, other than fairly natural looking fleshtones and the above-mentioned minimal lighting effects. This isn't a bad looking video presentation, but it isn't eye-poppingly exciting, either.

Regina Spektor: Live in London Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both of the lossless tracks included on this Blu-ray sound excellent. A DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (48 kHz) and an LPCM 2.0 track (also 48 kHz) are included, and they both suffice very well for this minimalist concert. There's no booming bass, no thumping drums, nothing that is going to set your ears ablaze with sonic fury here. Instead we get Spektor's very pleasant voice, nice piano playing and occasional guitar riffing, mixed well with a variety of well reproduced string effects, including everything from pizzicato to arco. The balance between Spektor's voice and the band is extremely well handled, and though there are in fact optional subtitles, you probably won't need them, unless you're trying to decipher some of Spektor's more deliberately outré lyrics. The audience is quite respectful here; they tend to hoot and holler as they recognize the opening strains of any given Spektor song, but then they quiet down and all you can hear is Spektor and her band.

Regina Spektor: Live in London Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bonus Performances (1080i) include versions of Bobbing for Apples (2:32), Ode to Divorce (3:47), The Call (3:11), and Love, You're a Whore (3:34).
• Soundcheck (1080i; 1:29) is a fun, sped-up trip through the set up for the concert.
• To Daniel Cho (1080i; 1:30) is a touching, though too brief, video montage in remembrance of her deceased cellist.
• Bonus CD includes all of the songs from the concert and bonus performances.

Regina Spektor: Live in London Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Spektor may be too quirky to ever reach the mass market appeal of King, Mitchell or Nyro (though she's slated to write the score for a Broadway musical next season). But that quirkiness is part of her charm and appeal. This concert finds her in fine voice, and she's such an appealing presence that even those immune to "anti-folk" may find themselves swayed by her. Recommended.