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Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope - Page 2

post #16 of 39
12/10/06 at 5:10pm
It's my favorite album of the year, and I keep going back to it for a listen at least once a week. I also like "Soviet", but for different reasons - its lo-fidelity, lack of production values, her lack of experience, etc. - it's all the things "Begin" is not. BTW, Sampson may be one of my top ten songs of all time.

P.S. - Doesn't it amaze you how retarded record companies are that "Begin" has at least 4 top 40 singles on it (the first 4 songs) and this album got/gets zero promotion?!
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post #17 of 39
12/10/06 at 8:25pm
Begin to Hope is a great album! go even futher down her early work to "Songs" (includes "Samson" original) and even 11.11 and you'll see what an impressive talent Regina is.

back to Begin to Hope, the 5 songs on the second disc are just as good. Uh-Merica is my fav of that bunch.

awaiting another North American tour.
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post #18 of 39
12/11/06 at 6:15pm
Begin to hope is No. 2 album of the year for me after Camille/Le fil.

Regina is a fantastic live show and I can't wait to go to see her live again in February. I postponed a trip to India by a few days in order to see her.
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post #19 of 39
12/11/06 at 6:43pm
That's it, I'm taking the leap. I'll probably buy it within the next week. pds6, I'm considering this a full recommendation, and if I don't like the album I'm going to hold to you 100% responsible
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post #20 of 39
12/11/06 at 9:12pm
Great, great, great cd. I'm hooked on it personally myself at the moment.
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post #21 of 39
12/11/06 at 9:49pm
Thread Starter 
Hmmmm, this thread, right down to the title, strikes me as oddly familiar for some reason!?!?
And I stand by my initial impressions...
Quote:
Originally Posted by en480c4 View Post
"Fidelity," "On the Radio," and "Apres Moi" are the early standouts.
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post #22 of 39
12/11/06 at 10:36pm
screw that, i'm going to en480c4's thread
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post #23 of 39
12/11/06 at 11:46pm
en480c4 says:
Quote:
Hmmmm, this thread, right down to the title, strikes me as oddly familiar for some reason!?!?
And I stand by my initial impressions...
Sorry, I usually look.

Nonetheless, "my initial impressions" were a little on the weak side. Hmmmmmmmmmm ............

For those of you that missed it, en480c4 said:

Quote:
I just figured I post up and see if anyone else has had a chance to pick up Regina Spektor's new album, Begin to Hope. I've enjoyed Soviet Kitsch for quite a while, though at times it seemed quirky just for the sake of being quirky. Regardless, I was looking forward to her follow-up. Well, I have to say, Begin to Hope didn't disappoint, and more than that, it's excellent. The quirkiness is still there, but the songwriting is much stronger and the production is top-notch... something that Soviet Kitsch was definitely lacking. "Fidelity," "On the Radio," and "Apres Moi" are the early standouts.
Now that I have said sorry to you, I think you owe Amazon a pardon me.
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post #24 of 39
12/12/06 at 1:47am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pds6 View Post
Sorry, I usually look.
No worries... I was just having a little fun. I thought the thread title looked familiar, so I checked.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pds6 View Post
Nonetheless, "my initial impressions" were a little on the weak side.
Well, considering that I wrote that post the day after the album was released, and after only 2 listens, I think my impressions were as detailed as I make them at the time. And after listening to the disc for 6 months, my opinion is the same... I still feel those are definitely the 3 strongest tracks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pds6 View Post
Now that I have said sorry to you, I think you owe Amazon a pardon me.
For the bandwidth for hotlinking the album cover? Never!!!
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post #25 of 39
12/12/06 at 8:15pm
Regina Spektor is awesome.

Samson is probably my favorite track on Begin To Hope.

Us is an awesome song from Soviet Kitsch. I was first itnroduced to her when I heard Us on Microsoft's pre-release website for the Zune.
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post #26 of 39
1/24/07 at 7:03pm
i have heard "fidelity" on xm radio like five hundred times so far. xm is very limited bandwidth so it sounded like everything else on xm. nothing remarkable, nothing too offensive.

yesterday someone leaves a promo on my desk at work. someone does not like me i guess.

the engineering on this disc has been well received. i am pretty sure this is by non engineering folk. it is so different than everything else you hear today i think people had some wool pulled over their eyes.

compressing the cr@p out of everything and then running it hot is the norm today. here they use the compressor super sparingly. then run it pretty cool. of course they had to place the mics about 2 inches from everything. i thought there was no compression at all when i listened. i analyzed it and there is a little in fact. when i saw the scope output i just shook my head.

you do not need all this equipment to see what is going here. if you have an amp with level meters see for yourselves. you go from 20 watts to clipping over and over again.

this cd is very capable of damaging equipment at reasonable volume levels.
i suggest you proceed with caution.

i will say her style, is cute,quirky even refreshing.
i wonder if our trashman agrees

music_man
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post #27 of 39
1/24/07 at 9:28pm
a thought occured to me. since i consider myself a man of integrity i figured i should mention this.

there is a (remote) possibility that my promo was not the media that was released to the general public. maybe the ones bought in a store did not have this issue. does anyone that owns the cd care to comment?

you would hear this as "clipping". high frequency breakup of the tweeters. when i analyzed the waveforms there were flat tops all over the place. i hope this is not what they sold to the public.

music_man
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post #28 of 39
1/24/07 at 10:30pm
music_man, this thread might interest you:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=220321

I can confirm there is distortion in parts of both soveit kitsch and begin to hope, but I wouldnt say either album clips badly. Im looking at the waveforms of soviet kitsch now and it looks like one song clips (Carbon Monoxide), 3 more go over -1db, and the rest are perfectly fine.

*Wait a few moments while I look at Begin to hope*

Hmm, in short, it does look like there is a fair bit of compression. In pretty much every song it just about hits 0db at some point (some songs quite a lot), but havent found anything that actually clips in the way carbon monoxide did in Soviet Kitsch.
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post #29 of 39
1/25/07 at 2:37am
thats weird. what wave editor are you using? is it calibrated? are you looking at the scale zereod or compensated?

anyways, i got ahold of a retail copy. it turns out that my promo was released as a cd with a toc titled "bonus cd". there is a 2 cd set. is that like cd2 of the 2 cd set? were you looking at the "bonus cd" packaged as a single cd. or do you have the 2cd set? the retail "bonus cd" is the same eaxct cd as the promo, verbatim. i used data checksum.

i am asking all this because i really like her style and vocal ability. it turned out to be a cd that i would go on my personal classics(long list). if the 2cd set is much better i want it.

it is a real shame to me. it is distorting so bad on each of my systems. i am not willing to risk damage regardless of how much i may like the music. what i am getting here is enough distortion to cause serious damage quickly. i don't know, maybe ymmv.

sorry i had to edit this 5 times. i am very sad at the moment. read what i am about to post in sony broke my heart thread if you wish.

music_man
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post #30 of 39
1/25/07 at 3:51am
i read the other post. that is unfortunate. it is like finding a 57 corvette in new condition sitting in a barn. then upon closer inspection it turns out to be a clever rebuild with aftermarket parts.

i am hearing a lot more distortion then is mentioned there even. i wonder if all of you have the 2cd set and it is somewhat better.

i also wonder why jpelg didn't hear it. maybe his superhero ears compensated for the poor quality

music_man
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