New York/Suzanne Vega

Christopher Street

My friend Suzanne Vega has just come out with Beauty and Crime, her first album in a number of years, and the first since being cut by her previous record company. When someone like Suzanne gets tossed, you need no more proof of how deeply lost the record business is. Fortunately, for her, and for us, there are still smaller companies like Blue Note who know what they are doing.

New York City has always been a presence in Suzanne's work, but with Beauty and Crime it becomes more than backdrop, it's even personified. New York is a Woman is as beautiful as anything she has written. Another of those amazing tight rope walks that few artists are capable of. Other songs touch the scars of 9/11. One vividly evokes her brother Tim living on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side, unable to overcome his demons and alcohol.


Ludlow Street

I heard many of the songs last fall as she and I drove across the Czech Republic. Rough takes only. Some of the songs have changed little, others more substantially. The last song, Obvious Question, is new to me. Like so much of Suzanne's writing over the years, there's a lightness where one might get portentous or maudlin. Where another writer might struggle for meaning, Suzanne successfully employs a deft turn of phrase–musically or lyrically–and lets it go at that. I'll have more to say about this album later once I've had a chance to listen some more. Here is the New York Times review.