I Hear In My Mind...

It is rare that I connect with an artist nowadays the same way I did when I was a teen or an early twenty-something. I can find a lot of good music these days, but I find I usually only listen to the album a few times and then I'm done. I may connect with a couple of tracks, but rarely do I find someone who makes me what to scour the internet for every last morsel of their creative output. There are few new bands where I find myself mentally counting down to their next album.

But, I have found one. Her name is Regina Spektor and she will be releasing her new album "Far" on June 23rd - that's 21 days from now.

I discovered Regina shortly after her album "Soviet Kitsch" came out. I fell in love with the songs "Us" and "Ode to Divorce" and "Somedays". The rest of the album took me a while to fall into favor with. Instead, I picked up her earlier album "11:11". Loved it. This led me to take another listen to "Soviet Kitsch". This time it hit me. I loved every song and every odd little lyric and vocal twitch.

It seemed not too long after, that news of her next album, "Begin to Hope" was going to arrive. She started out by releasing 4 singles from the album, all of which got me excited. I bought the album the day of release and found it to live up to every expectation.

It was around this time that my Google search engine became familiar with the words "Regina Spektor unreleased music". I was so pleased to find that she is one of those artists that seems to write a new song each day and has no problems playing these new ditties at shows. She reminds me a lot of Ani Difranco in that way. Always writing, always performing, always releasing some sort of musical nugget for her fans.

So now it is 21 days from the release of "Far". I heard the first single, "Laughing With" and I was worried. It's a very pretty song, but I'm not much into religion and songs overtly about religion don't do it for me. I don't think Regina is some uber-Christian and I know that is not what this song is about. But, still, not my cup of tea. When the track list was released, I became much more excited, for I saw the one song I was hoping would be on it: "Folding Chair". I've recently fallen in love with this song. I got an mp3 of her performing on XFM. I don't know why I love it. It's just one of those songs that grabbed me for whatever reason. She just put up the album version on her MySpace page and it is so awesome. She's added drums and other instruments and it's just such a fun and happy song. So perfect for summer. I can't wait to own it.

I pre-ordered the album off of iTunes to get the bonus tracks. I eagerly await the morning of June 23rd when I can add it to my iPod and listen to it on the bus ride to work.

In the meantime, here is a list of my must have Regina Spektor tracks - Go Get Them!:

Rejazz
Braille
I Want To Sing
Samson
Consequence of Sounds
Ode To Divorce
Carbon Monoxide
Us
Somedays
Fidelity
Better
On The Radio
Field Below
Hotel Song
Summer In The City
Another Town
Bartender
Folding Chair
Dance Anthem of the 80's

And pick up "Far" when it is released on June 23rd!