Recently asked how this album differed from her five previous studio releases, Regina Spektor said she had used more horns and layering, the inference being that she hasn't reinvented any wheels. And there's really no need: What We Saw from the Cheap Seats is rich in her own brand of creativity. If there's a gripe about this album, in fact, it's that there's so much to take in – she skips from Oh Marcello (a jaunty mix of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Edie Brickell's What I Am and a comic Italian accent) to Ballad of a Politician (a quietly gloomy, Russian-influenced ballad that eviscerates those who govern), to the single All the Rowboats (synth-drums explode as she complains about art being locked away in galleries: "Masterpieces serving maximum sentences/ It's their own fault for being timeless"). She's also rerecorded her own Ne Me Quitte Pas, a New York City love song masquerading as a nursery rhyme. In fine voice and piano, Spektor skips down the yellow-brick road, offering new diversions at every turn. Fun – but the whimsy can be exhausting.