A little over a week ago Regina Spektor was “Laughing With” us via fart jokes and a bummer of a song: “No one laughs at God in a hospital / No one laughs at God in a war / … No one laughs at God when a doctor calls after some routine tests,” etc. Looking at its title, this second Far track sounds like it could follow a similarly chilly path, and it does: In “Blue Lips” we go from the minute to the global, learning via blue lips, blue veins, and the blue color of our planet (from far far away) that the hue’s the most human of colors. Those lips are red in the above pic, yes, but you shouldn’t overlook metaphorical blues either.
The song was produced by Jeff Lynne, who also did Far‘s “Genius Next Door,” “Folding Chair” and “The Wallet.” The album’s other producers are a varied bunch: Mike Elizondo (Dr Dre, Eminem), Garrett “Jackknife” Lee (R.E.M., Weezer), and Begin To Hope‘s David Kahne.
Far is out 6/23 via Sire. She plays the Beacon Theater in NYC on 6/17.
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I WANNA FUCK HER VOICE
CRASS
she is right blue is the most human color. very be-oo-ti-ful song.
While listening to Blue Lips produced by Jeff Lynne for Regina Spektor
again I am struck once more by how Jeff can take sound elements and
strategically put them in places you wouldn’t expect. Sometimes you
have to listen a few times to find them too.
Example: Halfway through a verse he uses echo to accent Regina’s voice
in the line “The pictures in his mind arose and began to breathe
and no one saw and no one heard”. It comes right after the word
“heard.”
The bass is also a hallmark too and swirls around Regina’s piano and
Jeff’s Hammond organ.
This is probably one of her better songs, too bad she had to go Disney on us, she would be easier to love if she didn’t.
Excuse me, apple eater, but, what do you mean with “she had to go Disney on us”? Seriously, english is not my mother language and I didn´t catch the sense of it.
He/she was probably referring to “The Call”, a song from The Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack. However, it was a gorgeous song. So, I could care less if it was Disney or not.
Amazing song. I am really exicted for her new album. She is spectacular singer and song writer and this song is beautifully done.
Gonzalo – I think what apple eater meant by “going disney” is she did a song for the Narnia soundtrack, which I think he means she sold out.
I love her song on the Narnia soundtrack and I adore that movie. So, I am okay with her doing music for Disney.
although this version is beautiful, id have to say i enjoy the original version with just her and the piano. and whats wrong with regina doing a song for disney, she could do a song for telatubies and still be amazing. if you dont like an artist just because they’re a “sell out” than your a sell out, just in a different way.
I’m a huge Regina fan, but I’m dismayed, the two tracks I’ve heard are massively overproduced for my taste. I like the songwriting better than 11:11 and Songs, but the production just turns them into mush.
Nothing to do with the music, but does anyone else think she looks like Mel the stalker from Flight of the Conchords?
YES! I was just thinking that, too!
I cannot disagree with you more. Jeff Lynne’s treatment of “Blue Lips”, if in fact the addition to the original piano and voice are of his own invention, sounds amateurish and extremely misguided. He took what was an intimate, somber, beautiful piece of music and turned it into a confused, ridiculous… I don’t know what. Yes the original brilliant song is still there underneath the crap, but the crap is substantial. It sounds like he was trying to make it what some record label exec. would consider “hip” with the surf guitar and the moronic drum beat. To me its like taking a piece by Bach and adding rap beats, punk singing, and modern christian rock piano to it to make it “now” and “accessible to everyone”. Yuck. I can only hope that with repeated listenings the offensive additions will soften for me and I can appreciate this great song again. Yes I know who Jeff Lynne is….
Spektor of 2003: a fiercely talented, daring and inventive artist stretching the boundaries of her imagination to create unique inspiring art.
Spektor of 2009: a savvy entertainer putting out safe, generically sounding ditties carefully calculated to maximize commercial impact with Gray’s Anatomy crowd.
Some call it mainstream success. Others call it heartbreaking.
Other’s call it your opinion
i agree. old spektor is much better. much sharper and unique. the new stuff is too mainstream and poppy. still sounds good, but not as good.
I”m reminded of the anger of the folk purists when Dylan went electric. I see no problem with an artist experimenting with production. If the song is good it gets through, and this is a good song by a talented woman, which works unplugged or produced. If it helps her get radio play and expand her audience then fine.
By Jeff Lynne standards the production is quite restrained and maybe too workmanlike and safe. Be interesting to hear the whole album when it is out.
‘old times’ makes a good point. it’s almost as though ever since she got a record deal, she’s had to tone it down. Begin to Hope is still beautiful, as is this track, but there’s this frustrating sense of restraint in her newer stuff that makes you wonder what could have been. I hope I’m wrong. This is beautiful, though. I won’t lie, I’ve been looking forward to this release all year
actually, this is incredibly beautiful..
she is an amazing inspiring artist and i love this song but much prefer it with just piano and some violins. i feel like the bones of her music are so delecate and interesting that producing it like this almost crushes it a bit, but i still think its an amazing song that manages to play on my mind all the time…
I was taken back by the fact that they mention Jeff Lynne as merely a producer and not mention him as Jeff Lynne of The Traveling Wilbury’s/ELO fame.
Love the song…… but this version is substantially less emotive than the live performance I saw of her on Jools Holland – just piano and strings.
Thats my humble very subjective opinion of course.
Jeff Lynne has brought a melodic pop sensibility to Regina’s music and from this it will expand her listeniing audience and inturn sell more albums and make her significantly more money.
This album is her best album to date and her record company are extremely excited about the release of Far. She has certainly grown as a performer and songwriter and her music will now appeal to a much larger market.
Jeff Lynne should be eternally thanked for giving Regina ‘s music a more universal appeal
Jeff Lynne has brought a melodic pop sensibility to Regina’s music and from this it will expand her listeniing audience and inturn sell more albums and make her significantly more money.
This album is her best album to date and her record company are extremely excited about the release of Far. She has certainly grown as a performer and songwriter and her music will now appeal to a much larger market.
Jeff Lynne should be eternally thanked for giving Regina ‘s music a more universal appeal
or: Jeff Lynne should be eternally cursed for diluting Regina’s excellent songwriting with canned drums, dated guitar samples and cliche over-compression on vocals. Her record company is excited about the release of this record? Oh wow!
Well i think you can be pretty confident that those are not guitar samples but indeed played by Jeff Lynne himself… the snare might be a sample but at least not the usual sound he uses!
I loved the version she did on Jools Holland with piano, voice and strings, but give her a break. The guitars and drums version will get her radio play and open her music to a much broader audience. Is that a bad thing?
Love the Jeff Lynne production on Blue Lips and so does everyone else I ‘ve played it for.
I think Gladis is in the minority in a big way and given Jeff Lynne has just been honored by the ASCAP association for 40 years of outstanding contributions to popular music, I think Regina has made a wonderful choice.
Love the Jeff Lynne production on Blue Lips and so does everyone else I ‘ve played it for.
I think Gladis is in the minority in a big way and given Jeff Lynne has just been honored by the ASCAP association for 40 years of outstanding contributions to popular music, I think Regina has made a wonderful choice.
long time Regina fan here; just listened to this version. I have to say, I agree with some of the comments here – the song is still good and her singing is wonderful, but the production is kind of boring and unimaginative. The repetitive drums in particular sound cheap/dated and somehow make her slightly more generic. I guess it will work for the radio… but still, I don’t get how you get a major label budget and big-name producers on board and end up with a version of a five-year old song that’s weaker that a dozen live versions out there?
If all you think you hear is guitar samples and canned drums, then you clearly had no intention of giving the guy a chance.
My thoughts are to try to get a little perspective. She’s a musician. She can release what she wants and I personally like the live recordings, but some of the comments here are a tiny bit playgroundish. Like if she gets noticed by more people, some people will drop her & say she’s sold out. But these lyrics are really special imho. She had the whole new album “Far” on her myspace site for a few days and the whole things brilliant. But the minutiae about echo on one phrase, little arpeggio on fender when ‘Blue Lips’ accents the beat, (my mum could play it why use big Jeff). Production values on “Genius next Door” may cause dislike too but it’s just another version, look at it that way. When live on US TV shows I’ve seen her with a bigger band sound for “On the Radio”. Also Its not so far from Begin to Hopes’ production and she hasn’t got an uptempo song like Fidelity to blast it up the charts with “Far”
Why not create your own music, or study an musical instument then you’d be better informed and be able to create your own little gems. Just a thought.
The Jools Holland performance is great, for sure — listen to that pure un-AutoTuned voice! — but it’s OK to have more than one version out there in the world. I’d say the more the better! Why should the live version be a cookie-cutter soundalike of the recorded one?
She’s appearing on XM radio all week and sounds genuinely inspired and excited by the opportunity she had to work with many talented (and oddly different) producers on this record. So I don’t think any of it was forced down her throat. People grow up, they change, they want to do different things — let’s admire and respect their talent and ability to take it in other directions should they so choose. If this sounded exactly like her first record, I’m sure you would slam her for that, too.