On Regina Spektor

Any Regina Spektor fans out there? I'm a little late to the game, having only "discovered" her by way of her Way to Normal duet with Ben Folds, "You Don't Know Me."(That video is directed by Tim and Eric. Expect T&E-style visual candy.)

I now have two Spektor albums – Soviet Kitsch and Begin to Hope – and plan to get her newest, Far, when it comes out June 23. The entire album now is available for streaming from NPR's site.

This is the first single:


I'm a sucker for great pianists – raise your hand if you didn't know I have an untreatable Ben Folds obsession – and Spektor delivers crisp vocals over strong piano melodies to create little bits of stick-in-your-head-worthy tastiness. (That's a term you'll only see in a Kate-written music review.)

Here's something I don't say lightly, because Tori Amos is one of the muses who got me through college, but Regina Spektor reminds me of Tori before Tori did the split personality thing – not once, but twice – and started writing songs about which nobody cares. Yeah, I went there.