Track Review: Regina Spektor, “You’ve Got Time”

“You’ve Got Time”
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Regina Spektor is no stranger to the major motion picture soundtrack. Her voice plays a lead role in the music for (500) Days of Summer and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, after all. But her latest role might be her biggest yet. Every time you watch the new Netflix original series Orange Is The New Black you’ll hear “You’ve Got Time,” which will play over the title sequence. According to the show’s creator and producer, Jenji Kohan, the pairing is pretty organic.

“I listened to Regina’s albums obsessively while writing the series, so I immediately thought of her for our theme song. I love Regina and I’m so grateful she agreed to do it. I had total faith in her and she nailed it. I think she’s a genius,” Kohan said.

The show follows a New York drug lord’s fiancé and her 15 month stint in federal prison. Viewers watch as she acclimates to penitentiary culture and forms relationships with a group of “eccentric” women.

Spektor, however, might be at her least eccentric. For the woman that embodied kitsch, punch, and weirdness in her previous works, “You’ve Got Time” comes off a bit like Broadway’s interpretation of a rock song. The lyrics also lack the luster of irregularity to which her listeners are accustomed, but she does drift into some nice verses with “animals, the animals trapped trapped trapped ’til the cage is full.” And of course, her voice (and its range) is killer.