Regina Spektor - Live in London

With five albums under her belt and a rabidly loyal following, New York’s grand piano darling Regina Spektor has succumbed to demand to put out her very first live album; a mixed affair of her signature piano-driven pop-folk.

From breakthrough single Fidelity to her most recent and lauded album Far, Regina Spektor stamped her cherry-sweet quirkiness onto the consciousness of the music loving public and stayed there throughout the last decade. Now, eighteen months since her last studio release, it’s come time for her to take advantage of her live following with Live in London, a record that’s well placed to be snapped up in the Christmas rush, and one which is just as likely to be returned to the CD rack at about track six.

The question with Live in London isn’t so much ‘why should I buy this album’ as it is ‘how the fuck did so many people stay awake for the duration of its recording?’ Opening track eet is absolutely dazzling and there’s plenty to keep you interested as you work through the early parts of the record…but then it just keeps going. And going. And going. To the point where you’ve not long pressed play before you’re considering leaving the room...and that’s not exactly the effect that I'm after from an album in my collection.

There are moments speckled throughout the record that will no doubt reinforce every reason why your ears ever pricked up in the aural presence of her studio tracks, but where her studio albums have a degree of balance and complexity, the live setting tends to highlight the limitations of her songcraft. Throw in one part delicate piano tinkle, two parts quirk (via a bizarre lyric and vocal meandering) finish with a dose of hype and the entirety of the album has essentially been accounted for.

But that’s not totally true is it? That’s delving into the depths of cynicism and coming up for air with half truths. Where Folding Chair, On the Radio and Dance Anthem of the 80’s all fit that description - and for all intents and purposes are a great song (see lack of plural for hilarious joke) - there’s plenty of range at the opposite side of the spectrum in tracks like Samson and Blue Lips. Laughing With in particular is spectacularly beautiful; soaring and chilling as it ventures into its chorus…but it’s just one of a few speckled highlights that sit within an album that is mostly long, meandering and a little irrelevant in the context of her body of work.

At the end of the day, I just question the purpose of this record. Live albums are supposed to fill a void in an artist’s repertoire that can’t be filled by tight studio venturings. They’re supposed to bring something new to the table and dazzle you with their charm, but this doesn’t achieve that to any extent. Maybe her muse has dried up. Maybe she’s spending 18 months working on something phenomenally new and different and this is just a contractual fulfilling stopgap…but this feels more like a Christmas cash grab than a serious attempt at releasing good music.

Live in London is a great collection of dozens of very pretty songs that’s guaranteed to make you smile at least twice…but if you ever make it through its duration, you’ll find that it’s almost entirely forgettable. It’s nice, it’s wholesome, you can take it home to your mother…but you’re gonna need a fuck-load of Ritalin if you ever choose to actively listen to it. You probably won’t be that disappointed on transfer of this record from Christmas stocking to record player, but for me, I’d be want a hell of a lot more from the space this takes up in my CD rack.

Regina Spektor's Live in London is out now on Warner Music.