The New York-based Russian-American singer-songwriter’s very welcome first LP for six years is a wonderfully stirring, sensitive, melancholy mix of narratives, combining piano with beautifully lush orchestration and production by John Congleton. Spektor’s songs ponder philosophical observations, include meta stories, take on character perspectives, and have tendency invert opposite elements. What Might Have Been is a case in point, with lines such as “Sickness and flowers go together/Bombing and shelters go together” and other universal comparatives in this divided world of mighty opposites. One Man’s Prayer takes on the perspective a sensitive, insecure loner who longs to meet a girl, but at the end a more sinister side emerges, mixing up religion and love as he seeks to assert power over that person with disturbing misogyny. The extraordinary Up the Mountain, previously a Song of the Day, seems to be from the perspective of a bee gathering nectar, but could also refer to a manic human collecting instinct. “The story must go on/So keep listening, my son” she sings on the nine-minute epic Spacetime Fairytale. Other standouts include Becoming All Alone, the schoolteacher-led Loveology, and the profound closing track Through A Door. Mature, thought-provoking, beautiful work. Out on Warner.
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