Suzanne Vega...Album by Album Thread.

Great to see this thread going again. There's still a lot of great music to come.

 

'Nine Objects Of Desire' (1996)

I loved this when it came out....it's hard to believe it's 21 years ago this year!!!!
I still love it.
Some fans are not keen both 99.9f and Nine Objects Of Desire....both produced by Michell Froom, who by this time became Suzanne's husband.
Personally I loved the direction of both...and on any given day they are both amongst my fav albums ever along with Solitude Standing.

'Birth-day (Love Made Real)'
Suzanne's ode to giving birth to her daughter Ruby....a very different but great start to the album.
9/10

'Headshots'
This track is amazing....so simple and sparse. Fabulous lyrics....
10/10

'Caramel'
Beautifully seductive.....another brilliant song.
10/10

'Stockings'
Again, this is where the production really shines...along with Suzanne's witty lyrics.
9/10

'Casual Match'
along with Headshots, this is my fav on the album.
Used to use this as a reference back in the late 90's when auditioning new Hi Fi....
Hypnotic bass over throbbing percussion....
10/10

'Thin Man'
Compared with the first 5 tracks, this one is marginally not as brilliant....marginally!!!!
8/10

'No Cheap Thrill'
This was a single if I recall correctly?
back up a notch...
9/10

'World Before Columbus'
I love this...."If your life was taken from me...."
9/10

'Lolita'
Maybe one of the few tracks I might skip....
7/10

'Honeymoon Suite'
back up again...lyrics???.....in a class of her own.
8/10

'Tombstone'
Another gem.....and this is what I like about the 2 Froom era albums....how diverse they are.
8/10

'My Favorite Plum'
Dreamily draws the album to a close.......Suzanne's breathy vocals just perfect.


Certainly in my top 3 albums by Suzanne...and if truth be told as much as I like what has followed I don't think she has managed to match

10/10

 

I think this is the best of the 2 Mitchell Froom produced albums. Still inconsistent, but it never sinks as low as 99.9F and with Caramel, World Before Columbus and Tombstone it features 3 classic Suzanne Vega songs.

Birth-Day (Love Made Real) (5/10)

I like the hammond organ and the bass, but not the effects on Suzanne's vocals. The melody is a bit boring. Overall an interesting but not entirely convincing opening track.

Headshots (7/10)

Mitchell Froom makes Suzanne sound like Aimee Mann here. Very nice verse melody, but I'm not so sure about the chorus.

Caramel (8/10)

The only song from the album that has remained popular in her live set. Beautiful melody, nice bossa nova feel, Suzanne's voice sounds lovely.

Stockings (6/10)

While I really like the song, I do not like the way it sounds here. The heavy synth bass sounds completely out of place and the eastern sounds make me cringe. Recent live versions are so much better.

Casual Match (5/10)

Nice bass line, some interesting multitracked harmonies. But Suzanne's singing style is not really right for the song.

Thin Man (7/10)

A bit of a forgotten beauty. Jazzy wurlitzer piano, nice guitar solo. Would have been better with a more exciting melody, but as it is still a nice song.

No Cheap Thrill (5/10)

There are very few upbeat songs that Suzanne's really comfortable with, and despite a catchy chorus this song's no exception.

World Before Columbus (9/10)

My favourite song on the album. I like Suzanne's acoustic guitar on this one, the contrast between the verse and chorus, the verse melody. The song even benefits from Mitchell Froom's production (did I just admit that?).

Lolita (4/10)

Annoying chorus, monotonous song. The only thing which doesn't disappoint is the song's swinging bass-line.

Honeymoon Suite (5/10)

A rough acoustic guitar demo with some electronic effects added, the end result makes me think of the Beatles' Free As A Bird, that's not a compliment.

Tombstone (8/10)

A swinging piano song with a great melody and one of the rare upbeat tracks that Suzanne is comfortable with. Even Mitchell Froom doesn't ruin the fun.

My Favourite Plum (7/10)

Fine closing track with a good melody. It could have been better with a more stripped down, laid back arrangement. Still, compared to most of the album's songs this stands out.


Thought it was nice to share this here, me and Suzanne at the merchandise table after her show in Utrecht last June. Sorry for the crappy quality.

 

Brings back good memories of Cross Roads on VH1. I've never heard the album in full but I remember hearing No Cheap a Thrill a lot on that show, on adult alternative radio, and late night on MTV's 120 Minutes.

 

Single, love this.

 

I thought this was a big step up from 99.5. Very consistent songwriting here. I think of this as one of her later albums so find it hard to believe it is now 21 years old. Output has been pretty sparse since. It also has never got a vinyl release along with Songs In Red or Gray.

 

Surprised that neither have been released on vinyl recently....but then it's not down to Suzanne. A&M own the rights to her back catalogue up to Songs In Red And Grey.

 

A&M don't really exist. It's Universal that now own the recordings but I'm surprised one or other hasn't appeared as a 'Back To Black' release so far.

 

Yeah....I wondered if they existed on their own as such these days.....merged, took over or swallowed up as is the case for many labels this last 10-15 years.
When you look at some of the obscure stuff that gets a release, you do wonder?

 

2nd single ...

 

this is one of my very favorite albums by anyone. I think the heavy production flourishes work great, and complement the great songs.

Philo

 

This didn't get much play on MTV at the time. In fact, I watched MTV a lot at the time this would have been a single and I don't recall ever seeing it...

 

Thanks to this thread I have started listening to Suzanne Vega again. I always liked her but didn't really follow her career past a certain point. Am now discovering some of what I have missed

 

'Tried And True...The Best Of Suzanne Vega'

Released 28th September 1998





1. "Luka" 3:52
2. "Tom's Diner" (remix by DNA) 3:49
3. "Marlene On The Wall" 3:40
4. "Caramel" 2:53
5. "99.9F°" 3:15
6. "Small Blue Thing" 3:54
7. "Blood Makes Noise" 2:28
8. "Left Of Center" 3:32
9. "In Liverpool" 4:41
10. "Gypsy" 4:04
11. "Book Of Dreams" 3:22
12. "No Cheap Thrill" 3:09
13. "World Before Columbus" 3:26
14. "When Heroes Go Down" 1:54
15. "The Queen And The Soldier" 4:48
16. "Book & A Cover" 3:49
17. "Rosemary" 2:43

Bonus disc:
No. Title Length
1. "Marlene on the wall" (live)
2. "Caramel" (live)
3. "Some journey" (live)
4. "In Liverpool" (live)
5. "Luka" (live)
6. "Tom's Diner" (live)

 

'Tried And True...The Best Of Suzanne Vega' (1998)

Suzanne's first compilation.
Commersially Suzanne's popularity had continued to drop despite...IMHO....writing the best songs/albums of her career upto this point.
Tried and True is a very good starting point or overview for anyone casually browsing Suzanne's output upto this point.
The 2 new tracks, Book & A Cover and Rosemary plus the bonus Live disc make it worthwhile for any longstanding fans as well.

8/10.

 

Book and a Cover is OK. Rosemary is better and she seems to have an affinity for it, despite it being a more obscure song.
I've sold mine years ago when the last hits set came out with other live stuff and an extra track, kept the two odd songs here.

I admit it was discouraging when I realized that her fan base was leaving, but like so many other artists I liked from the 80's like Lobos and John Hiatt, people are just losing interest. She isn't one of those singers with an expressive range and sadly, lyrics don't count for as much anymore.

 

To be honest, I don't care whether a artist is 'popular' but I understand what you are saying to a degree.
I don't understand your point over her vocal style though....why does she need a 'expressive range'?
Part of her appeal to a lot of people along with her lyrical charm is her cool almost spoken vocal delivery.

 

Look at who is huge now--Adele, she DELIVERS a song, using tenderness or a gun. I've always loved kd lang, whose voice is awe-inspiring.
People with great pipes, like Streisand or Karen Carpenter, will always have fans.
Suzanne doesn't really deliver a song, but she uses her soft, alluring voice really well--after all, these are her personal songs, she is really living in them.
Way before I met/saw her, I always pictured the woman behind that voice as aloof and standoffish. Just based on her voice.
Maybe she was back then (she certainly was born shy), but it's great that now she wants to spend time with fans, signing stuff and exchanging a word or two.

 

I don't disagree with your observations on the likes of all the singers you have mentioned....But i still don't understand your point on saying Suzanne doesn't 'deliver' a song i presume, like eg Adele.
Surely her voice coupled with her song writing is what makes her a 'artist'....A individual.
They all deliver.....If you like them.
As much as i acknowledge Adele's voice for example....Her music does absolutely nothing for me....But for many others, they love her?
All good ace....

 

I'd take Suzanne Vega's vocal style over Adele's any day of the week, but I never seem to like what's popular very much. It's funny, I'd never really understood that I was a Suzanne Vega fan till scanning through this thread I realized that I have most of these records and they're committed to memory. For me 99.9 was the real entry point. Was there really a time when a female folk singer writing about child abuse could have a hit song? That seems like a distant time, but I remember it clearly. My cousin used to live across the street from Tom's Diner in Morningside Heights. Wow, Suzanne Vega. I'm glad that your life circumstances have stabilized such that you could pick this thread back up, prompting me to re-examine Suzanne Vega's music.

 

Mogens....
Life still tough at times, but life goes on.
My marriage failing wiped me out...And it's took me a long time to find some peace of mind over it and the ensuing divorce.
Thank you.

 

A&M have existed in name only since Polygram purchased them in 1989. They then sold out to what is now Universal in 1997 (then MCA and owned by Seagram). Currently Universal is owned by French corporation Vivendi.

 

This is where it all started for me. It had all the hits so I thought this would be all the Suzanne Vega I'd ever need. But then I liked "Small Blue Thing" and "The Queen And The Soldier" very much and after a few years I ended up with a vinyl copy of her debut. This album made me such a fan that I bought her remaining albums in a few months.

I think this is still a very good compilation for first time listeners, even though it now covers only half of her career. The radio hits are there, as well as some fan favourites and the back then otherwise unavailable "Left Of Center". The non-chronological running order works fine. I really like "Rosemary", I'm glad it occasionally finds its way into her live set. "Book And A Cover" is one I've never really cared for.

 

'Songs In Red And Gray'

Released 25th September 2001

1. "Penitent" – 4:16
2. "Widow's Walk" – 3:33
3. "(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May" – 3:47
4. "It Makes Me Wonder" – 4:00
5. "Soap and Water" – 3:03
6. "Songs in Red and Gray" – 4:18
7. "Last Year's Troubles" – 3:35
8. "Priscilla" – 4:14
9. "If I Were a Weapon" – 2:45
10. "Harbor Song" – 4:18
11. "Machine Ballerina" – 2:57
12. "Solitaire" – 2:10
13. "St. Clare" – 2:30

 

Sorry to come late to this but the first two albums are outstanding, especially on vinyl.