Regina Spektor Best Of
Marguerite Litscher
Occasionally you come across a situation so unexpected that it prompts you to reexamine your worldview. Perhaps this has happened to you this year. For me, such a moment occurred earlier this month (October) while reading an AMA. An AMA (Ask Me Anything) is a concept that was introduced by Reddit involving someone, usually famous, responding to questions (about anything) asked by any common forum-goer. This time, the host was Regina Spektor, the talented Russian-born singer-songwriter and pianist. The full AMA can be found here _regina_spektor_ask_me_anything/
To me, this song is about someone close to you going through a terrible time, but there's nothing you can do to help. My brother is gay, and I know there's people that treat him badly because of it. I wish I could help him, because I know he endures so much pain, but theres nothing I can do. Also, and this one fits the lyrics better, one of my best friends has a sister with anorexia that won't get treatment. My friend wants so badly to be able to do something, and I know this song describes exactly how she feels.This probably isn't what Regina wrote the song about, but what it means to me. I cry every time I hear it. Regina is amazing.
I love how Regina's tunes rarely match the lyrics. By matching different vibes, it's like she's trying to say that life is just a big mushpot of emotions. You can find joy in every sad thing you feel, or you can discover heartbreak in many happy things, but no matter what, it's always okay to feel what you feelLove this song, it's brilliant!
I always (making it sound like I didn't only hear this late last year) thought that "Born like sisters to this world" was an indication of similar wavelengths and "And if you never say your name out loud to anyone,They never ever call you by it" is avoiding connection, or ever being close to anyone.
To me this song (now called "better" on the new album Begin to Hope btw) is about trying to get close to someone and not knowing if it'll ever make a bit of difference to the other person (and clearly going to anyway).Having been close to (grown up with/raised by) severely depressed people and trying to help them through though it made absolutely no difference, I appreciate it this way. And sisters of this world kinda hinting at the effect it has on the kisser (maybe why they are doing it?).
this song is about her. its regina talking to her someone (friend, relative...etc) about her self doubts and not exactly knowing whats wrong or how to fix it, or if she even can. the blood ties being only blood is just a trust issue, the never saying your name out loud is being worried about failing and people know it was you (her) and being able to talk about it. and the last verse is obvious, shes getting sadder and doesnt know why... its clearly a song written about herself and her doubts and fears, its just written in a way so it seems like shes talking to someone else when in reality shes telling herself how she feels.
I think it is about depression. She sounds like she's singing about someone she really cares about who is depressed and she can't tell whether her efforts to show love are having any effect on him/her. It's easy to miss the emotion in her voice when she sings 'better', because the song is superficially a happy one.
That aside, amazing song. I think it's about trying to revive someone who is emotionally detached or at least wants to be detached because of the pain they are in (thus the line "If you never say your name out loud to anyoneThey can never ever call you by it")
It seems like it's a testament to how if you live life just correcting the mistakes, instead of making a positive contribution, you risk nothing happening at all. In a pile of everything, if you don't stand out, you'll be picked over.
it fells to me like she's talking about a best friend, someone she was friends with since she was born, that from"Born like sisters to this world,In a town where blood ties are only blood," which says, blood ties means nothing, what matters is that they're sisters.Something happens to that friend of hers and that girl gets very depressed and apathic. that from "if I kiss you were it's sore will you fell better, will you fell anything at all?" like any small child, she was led to belive that kissing were it's sore made it feel better and she wants her friend to get better...Now, the reason why her friend is depressed to me sounds like child abuse. I feel like the "In a town where blood ties are only blood" has a double meaning there. Regina is saying how wrong it is for her friend's father to do that to her."And if you never say your name out loud to anyone,They never ever call you by it." Would be on the same idea. A kind of "you don't have feel related to him" "it doesn't matter that you have the same name, just don't tell anyone your name is that"
it feels like it's a bit too farfetch but another reading I have is the same idea but without the abuse part.. then the"And if you never say your name out loud to anyone,They never ever call you by it." would be "you'll stay alone if you don't talk to people" how will people call you by your name if you don' t tell them? In my experience with depression I always felt like I was alone and miserable and no one wanted to talk to me but it was I who was excluding myself. On the same page, if I never talked to anyone how would they get to know me?
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