Regina Spektor - Remember Us to Life (2016) [FLAC]

  Genre: Rock
  Style: Singer/Songwriter, Indie
  Source: Deluxe CD (log + cue)
  Codec: FLAC
  Bit rate: ~ 900 kbps
  Bit depth: 16
  Sample rate: 44.1 kHz

  01 Bleeding Heart 
  02 Older and Taller 
  03 Grand Hotel 
  04 Small Bill$ 
  05 Black and White 
  06 The Light
  07 The Trapper and the Furrier 
  08 Tornadoland 
  09 Obsolete 
  10 Sellers of Flowers
  11 The Visit
  12 New Year
  13 The One Who Stayed and the One Who Left
  14 End of Thought 

  Four years after her Top Five album What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, and three after being introduced to some via her original theme song for the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, Regina Spektor returns with Remember Us to Life. With a title that reflects its poignancy, at least relative to her catalog to date, it's still defined by Spektor's offbeat way with melody, phrasing, and diction, while expanding arrangements. Those arrangements span intimate piano ballads (though never merely voice and piano) and fully orchestrated set pieces, with a promise to reward those with a fondness for theatrical pop. Falling somewhere within the range of instrumentation is the jaunty "Older and Taller," which addresses a cad's return, with piano, drums, strings, and wordplay like "And all the lies, they were wiser/And the wise were the liars/And the liars were on fire/And the fires were put out." On the sparer side, and not to be confused with "Hotel Song" from one of her earlier EPs, "Grand Hotel" is a piano piece in 6/8 time, ornamented with occasional strings and tales of supernatural spirits. Later, "Small Bill$" takes an odd turn into playful, orchestral hip-hop that's followed by two earnest ballads, including the disarmingly profound "The Light" ("So many things I know, but they don't help me/Each day I open up my eyes and start again"). The most classical-minded entry, "Seller of Flowers," is contemporary orchestral song