Regina Spektor’s anti-folk music stirs emotions

Much like punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s as a rebellious movement against mainstream rock and pop, a genre labelled anti-folk emerged in New York City in the 1980s. Regina Spektor, the Russian-born singer-songwriter who migrated to New York in her pre-teens, began her musical journey in the late 1990s as an archetypal anti-folk singer, playing at any place that had a piano and carrying a backpack of her self-released CDs to sell to small audiences. He suggests they grab a beer and she asks him, “Why doesn’t it get better with time?” Here’s the opening verse from that song: I went walking home alone/ Past all the bars and corner delis/ When I heard God call out my name/ And he said ‘Hey, Let’s grab a beer/ It’s awful late/ We both right here’/ And we didn’t even have to pay/ ’Cause God is God/ And he’s revered. But in it, Spektor sang: The food that I’m eating/ Is suddenly tasteless/ I know I’m alone now/ I know what it tastes like/ So break me to small parts/ Let go in small doses/ But spare some for spare parts/ There might be some good ones!