Regina Spektor - 1999 demo + Unreleased Demos and Bonus Songs Compilation

1999 Demo:
1. Chicken Song - 0:00
2. Braille - 3:50
3. Love Affair - 7:59
4. Cinderella 10:10
5. School Is Out - 12:24
6. Sunshine - 15:28

"All songs written and performed by me (Regina Spektor)"
"Produced by Joe Ferry"
Unreleased Demos and Bonus Songs:
1. Dead Of Night - 17:36
2. I Cut Off My Hair - 18:56
3. Ave Maria - 22:12
4. Baby Jesus - 26:09
5. Aquarius - 28:52
6. Bobbing For Apples (live) - 33:34
7. Rockland County - 36:14
8. BYOS - 39:24
9. A Cannon - 41:15
10. Time Is All Around - 44:01
11. December - 47:12
12. Just Like The Movies - 49:20
13. Loveology - 53:11
14. Raindrops - 58:49
15. The Soup - 1:01:28
16. Folding Chair - 1:05:03
17. Scarecrow & Fungus - 1:08:18
18. Carbon Monoxide - 1:10:50
19. The Ghost Of Corporate Future - 1:15:15
20. 20 Years Of Snow - 1:18:31
21. Another Town - 1:21:24
22. Uh-Merica - 1:25:34
23. Baobabs - 1:28:53
24. Dusseldorf - 1:30:57
25. Music Box - 1:34:30
26. Hero / Bartender (live) - 1:36:41
27. Paris - 1:43:52
28. Chemo Limo - 1:46:26

I first heard Regina Spektor in the 9th grade via the film (500) Days Of Summer. I was compelled to look up what I thought was called "Hero Of The Story," later that day to find it was called "Hero" by Regina Spektor. I was taken with her passion, her quirky songs and quirky lyrics (Marry Ann comes to mind immediately). Back in 2009/10 there were actually quite a few Regina Spektor songs, both demos and official ones, on the internet as her work had been around since 2001. She spent much of her early career playing gigs at various clubs and bars in New York, and you can feel that in some of the songs here. They're very loose, funny, perfect for entertaining a bunch of 20-30 somethings. But you won't find just that; Loveology is famous among most Regina Spektor fans as being that one truly lovely and earnest song that she just won't officially record! Time Is All Around is a particular favorite of mine with its optimistic instrumentation and its more scatter-brained lyrics of lamentation. I greatly enjoy kicking back and relaxing to all of the songs collected here, save for Chemo Limo. It's not a bad song; it's one of her best, actually. It's just more manic-depressive than all of the songs here, and it's more inclined to inspire introspective sadness than relaxation.

The first 17 minutes are a demo Regina recorded and sent to a producer in 1999. Don't let the quality fool you, some positively brilliant lyricism here, like Chicken Song's

"Another day, another year
Another joke, another beer
And I'm sleeping through"

It's a reminder of one of the things I love about music: The myriad of ways a writer can sum up life with accompanying sounds amplifying the feeling of the words. Compare "Chicken Song" to Waxahatchee's "You're Damaged." They're both songs with a general summation of life, but "YD" is far more resigned to the unfortunate realities that each of us will encounter "chaos, condolence, and defeat," along with more personal lines about Katie Crutchfield's own father. The acoustic guitar trudges along very methodically, like the days of our lives. "Chicken Song" carries tones of resignation, but it also shifts back and forth between a galloping pace and more of a slow dance, along with its own brand of levity that "YD" does not have, as well as urgency as the song reaches its climax. Is either one of these songs better than the other? No, not at all. It's just fascinating that someone had a plethora of experiences that led to them to their points of view about life, and brought forth these feelings in beautiful music.

Braille, Love Affair, and Sunshine would later be re-recorded. Braille is another favorite of mine. There was a youtube video compiling a bunch of artsy photographs cutting in sync with Braille sometime in 2008, 2009. I watched that video quite a few times, it's gone now, and that makes me wistful sometimes. Coincidentally, Braille is about a mother reflecting upon her life's lost aspirations, how she hasn't changed much despite being a mother. But it's not really a sad song, it doesn't sound like the mother is regretful. Just trying to make sense of a life that might've moved too fast.

Видео Regina Spektor - 1999 demo + Unreleased Demos and Bonus Songs Compilation канала whitedude877