God, I pity the violins in glass coffins

Bloody hell, it's good to have Regina Spektor back. For all the amazing female music we've been spoiled with in recent years, there's no-one quite like the Russian-American alt pop queen for sheer knock-you-backwards brilliance. If you haven't stumbled across her already, check out Us or Samson on YouTube. It's like Tori Amos without the spooky mysticism and psychological hang-ups. Sweet, strange, funny and full of melody.

Never one for straightforward love songs, Regina's comeback single All The Rowboats is a diatribe against museums. No, really. Regina is quite simply furious that our most treasured art - from paintings to Stradivarius' violins - are kept behind glass in sterile buildings with vaulted ceilings, out of sight and eternally lonely. Here's the refrain:

"First there's lights out, then there's lock up.
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences.
It's their own fault for being timeless -
Theres a price to pay, and a consequence.
All the galleries and museums,
(Here's your ticket, welcome to the tombs')
They're just public mausoleums.
The living dead fill every room."

I've already listened to this eight times this morning. Now it's your turn. Incredible.

Regina Spektor - All The Rowboats

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