This is my last post on Suzanne Vega’s music for now. After listening to all of her songs my conclusion is that while she has a pleasant voice, some of the production techniques starting with 99.9F may not paint it in the best light. Still, my favorite album is Nine Objects of Desire and her later work shows a lyrical maturity that I believe is being overlooked.

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Much time passed between the previous album Nine Objects Of Desire and this one, during which a few things occurred, namely the divorce of Vega and Froom. Scars from that experience litter this album, and while sometimes it makes for poignant listening, other times it’s taken a bit too literally - and I feel I have to look away. But above all there is a strange, disjointed feeling as Vega is working with a new producer, who lends a complex but ultimately rather sterile sheen over some decent material.

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This album is my present favorite, although some may feel the Froom production overbearing to where Vega is obscured - her voice echoing out from the bottom of a well. But I find much to love, as the songs’ variety shows an embrace of old-yet-new styles; almost as if each tune takes an old favorite as a template: we have hints of Steely Dan, the Beatles, and Burt Bacharach’s The Look Of Love. Lyrically, Vega moves beyond the inward mysticism of Days Of Open Hand to wiser, jaded observations on family and relationships.

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This album marked a turning point for Vega’s music - coming after the unexpected remix success of Tom’s Diner. This disc features a groove-oriented, electronic feel, and a definite push beyond folk roots and the previous three albums. Up to the task was eclectic producer and keyboardist Mitchell Froom who brought in guitarist David Hildago (Los Lobos) and bassist Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Attractions) to create Vega’s new sound. Froom had worked on Los Lobos’ album Kiko and many of those experiments take further root on 99.9F, to varying success.

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In retrospect, this album seems like a calculated attempt to recreate the success of Luka, and has a more cohesive sound, but for whatever reason, the commercial production and songwriting didn’t work. The promotion machine was behind Vega this time out, but sadly, nothing came of it. Perhaps it was the somewhat obscure subject matter of dreams, fortune-telling, and hospitals? A bold change was needed, and thankfully one came from an unusual place in time to fuel the next album.

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Vega’s second album fulfilled the promise of the first one’s “sound” and was her most commercially successful, featuring the surprise hit Luka. While that’s the obvious highlight, there are a few other gems waiting to be discovered, like the audacity of Tom’s Diner, the note perfect Gypsy, and the slightly spooky Solitude Standing.

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For yet another musical series in which I apply the personally biased Album Rank-O-Rama method to an artist’s albums, here’s an old favorite: Suzanne Vega. She just released a new disc called Beauty And Crime.

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A long time Suzanne Vega fan, I’ve been letting Beauty & Crime steep to where I could write about it objectively and not from that “This is the first album in years! It’s wonderful!” perspective.

After endless repeats and within the context of her previous work on my iPod, I feel there is much that’s genuinely wonderful. Much of the saddening sterility of the previous “divorce” album, Songs In Red And Grey, is absent, replaced with tasteful, polished production, often perfect. Lyrically, it’s magnificent - it sounds as if Vega has almost too much to say these days.

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