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.
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.
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.