Regina Spektor

Jeff Lynne, one of four producers on Regina Spektor's latest album, has described the music of the singer, pianist, and songwriter as "high-class, bizarre, and beautiful," which as capsule reviews go is right on the money. A classically trained pianist, Spektor adds a touch of elegance to her piano-torqued pop with her keyboard perambulations, as if some Carnegie Hall denizen wandered into the Brill Building. Indeed, there's a Carole King-like quality to Spektor, although her hooks are more subtle and she's far quirkier, meriting the "bizarre" tag. Spektor is even a bit of a surrealist, kicking off far with "Calculation," which includes time as a condiment, a computer made of macaroni, and determined lovers who cut out their own stone-like hearts and strike them together to spark romance. A Russian native who moved to the Bronx with her parents when she was nine, Spektor made her commercial breakthrough with 2006's Begin to Hope, spinning off "Fidelity" and a handful of other songs that got widespread exposure. Long before, however, she started to make a name for herself around New York with her closely observant, generously detailed songs with peculiar perspectives. Which certainly continues with far's first single, "Laughing With," an alternately smug and absurdist take on religion. Opening will be Little Joy, a collaboration among Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante, and L.A. singer-songwriter Binki Shapiro, who play sunny, bossa-tinged pop. (Photo by Sam Ford)
Fri., Sept. 11, 6:30 p.m., 2009