Regina Spektor to Nikola Tesla

She’s the latest thing to almost make it big and a contender for flavour of the month, but Regina Spektor, the Russian-born and self-styled ‘Bronx girl by way of Moscow’, deserves to be much more. Whilst her EP Soviet Kitsch heralded a singer-songwriter with an ethnically diverse array of vocal and musical influences and stylings, her latest offering, Begin to Hope, marks her out as an upbeat and innovative musician, capable of blending playful piano with engaging narratives, all drawn together in a wonderfully imaginative way. And her live performance, which I caught last night at Sheffield’s Leadmill, is truly something: her soaring vocals as distinct as on studio record, given extra verve and energy by an excellent backing band. If you haven’t listened to Spektor’s work before, the following is her myspace page, where you can hear a few songs from Begin to Hope, and in particular, the wonderful ‘Us’ from Soviet Kitsch. The video above is for her recent single, ‘Fidelity’.

Oh, and in a shameless plug, a poem of mine, ‘The Tesla Coil’, appears in this week’s TLS, alongside new poetry by Carol Rumens, Angela Leighton, and regular TLS contributor, Tom Paulin.