From Up & Coming:

Regina Spektor

(Paramount) Remember four years ago, when Regina Spektor fans spent every waking moment insisting that Spektor wasn't some sort of Tori Amos—like, fairy-tale-quaint bullshitter? It's a pleasure to not be in that place anymore: Spektor's obviously more on the cool, Leonard Cohen end of the spectrum than the slavering, overemotional Amos. Spektor's newest album, Far, relies more on emotional impact than does her earlier work; the most important instrument on one song, "Eet," is Spektor's tongue tapping the back of her front teeth, and it's a fraught, tense sound. "Blue Lips" has a stuttering beat that makes the song sound like it could fall apart into silence at any moment. It's the good kind of drama, and Spektor is still firmly on the good side of the spectrum. PAUL CONSTANT

Múm, Sin Fang Bous

(Showbox at the Market) Múm's brand of quiet, weird intensity doesn't make them a novelty act. They're not miniaturists—"Marmalade Fires" is restrained, but it also soars in the way a symphony orchestra soars. The title track on the Icelandic group's most recent album, Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know, seems to build into something that could become a raucous explosion, but it just keeps ascending, like an ornate marble staircase that you keep climbing, only to find it leads to a dead-end wall, but on that wall is maybe the most moody, gorgeous painting you've ever seen in your whole life. PAUL CONSTANT

And there's always more in our complete music calendar listings.