Regina Spektor Debuts “Older and Taller,” Latest Single from Her Forthcoming Album

Regina Spektor has shared the warm new track “Older and Taller,” the final taste we’ll (likely) get of her forthcoming album Remember Us to Life before its release next week.

In contrast to her other recent singles, this song returns to a mostly familiar, if slightly less quirky, Spektor. “Bleeding Heart” and “Black and White” saw her experimenting with synthesizers and electronic sounds, and on “Small Bill$” she even forayed into something like rapping over a dark pop groove.

On “Older and Taller” she’s back to her piano-and-string-centric roots, and intertwines these instruments in an arrangement that goes down smooth. If you tune out the lyrics (which are about existential anxiety), it sounds like the innocuous background music of the end of a rom-com.

But do meditate on the lyrics, because they’re complex. Spektor is both cynical—if your circumstances aren’t bad, they will be soon, she suggests in a series of metaphors—and ultimately triumphant: “Enjoy your youth / Sounds like a threat / But I will anyway.” The verses feature intricate rhymes and wordplay.

Remember Us to Life is scheduled for release on Sept. 30, and will be the first album we’ve gotten from Spektor since 2012’s What We Saw from the Cheap Seats. Listen to “Older and Taller” below.