One dynamic song, one catchy song - the rest filler. What happened Regina?

Very quirky but accessible effort. Starts with 3 lovely pop songs, and the rest might satisfy those who don't like Liz Phair's new direction.

This girl from Leninsky Prospect in Moscow is simply fantastic! Bravo! The Album is wonderful, especially when she sings lyrics by Pasternak!

Simply Amazing. Regina's new album retains everything that makes her unique but it has expanded the style and really redefined a genre.

Fantastic Album!

Whoever mixed this should be spanked. It sounds like Regina Spektor recorded another solid album, only to have her record lable hire a two year old to add in some completely inappropriate synth effects with an old school casio. Of course, the songs themselves are still hauntingly beautiful; They just lack a lot of the power of her live performances.

I love this girl. Her personality just shines through her music and she's amazing. I do miss her anti-Indie stuff but she is amazing at the anti-pop. I will always love her music.

Amazingly beautiful.

I actually think that the production makes it a more expansive and equally pretty, catchy and fun (if not spectacular) album as the rest of her pretty, catchy and quirky work.

All her disconcerted critics can fuck right off.

She's friggen rad.

It may take some getting used to for extreme "Soviet Kitsch" fans, but it's still worthwhile to give this fantasic album a listen. It's inspiring and has also many "piano and vocal only" songs too for you purists.

Regina remains one of the most talented artists working today.

An extraordinary work, lavish and sparse in equal measure. An exquisite voice and wonderfully devilish sense of humour. The best thing I have heard since Jane Siberry's 'When I was A Boy'.

There is something special going down in the New York City's East Village anti-folk scene. The Russian born Regina Spektor is a good example of this movement, which is becoming known, at least by me, living on the other side of the world, for producing excellent female singer-songwriters who combine tinkling on the piano with alt. county style folk. Similar to a contemporary Martha Wainright, she is carrying on the tradition that harks back via Lucinda Williams, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple and Ani DiFranco, with a touch also of PJ Harvey, to a little known and fairly inconsequential artist named Kate Wolf who sang a lovely song called 'Here In California'.… Expand

Best album of the year. Talented, criative, inventive and truly beautiful work.

amazing vocal quality and diversity. many songs i just feel compelled to play over and over. fabulous!

it was emotionally evoking, well done and intelligent. i really enjoyed it

A truly manificent work. Combine Miss Spektor's pitch-perfect vocals, her fascinating lyrics, and her superb piano-playing talent, and you have "Begin to Hope," an album that is one the greatest collections ever recorded. Call me crazy, but Regina Spektor just might become the most influential act in music since The Beatles.

She annoys me...Her personality and voice are both highly irritating.

"Begin to Hope" has two amazing songs about being in love; "On the Radio" and "Hotel Song". Spektor takes a sweet-sour approach that her rhapsodies about love don't get too icky. The former has killer observations about the reciprocation about love, but it's framed within a narrative about drug addicts; the latter tells the story of some amorous escapades in a hotel room, but Spektor, again with the drugs, almost digressively sings " a little bag of cocaine", because her album, albeit teenager-friendly, is for adults. There's a few songs that go absolutely nowhere, but "That Time" isn't one of them. It redeems the latter half of a sometimes very beguilling album of commercialized eccentricity.… Expand

Oy! This passes for intelligent music? Banging out piano chords, sliding your voice up and down hardly qualify as music. The lyrics are uninspiring; well, if you like unicorns and collect candles maybe they will speak to you. Shallow, dumbed down music suitable for anyone who wishes George Winston would sing. Regina Skeptor is the paradigm of faux indie music. On the plus side: your mother probably loves her music.… Expand

One of my favorite albums of the year. There's only one song that I skip over "Field Below"- it's not that it's a bad song, it just gets repetitive. I was worried that the transition from piano to pop would be awkward, but she pulled it off with charm! I like this album just as much as I liked Soviet Kitsch, maybe even better.

Such a lovely, wonderful album by Regina. Beautiful gem and one of the best all around records of 2006. This is a must buy!!

One of my personal favorites. Gets better and better the more you listen to it.

A fine album, wonderfully put together. Regina is one of the best musicians right now in music.

A brilliant musical achievement. Beautiful songwriting and great, great songs. One of the best albums of 06, by far!

The best record of 06! I love this album!

A wondeful album!