Solitude Standing

Beauty & Crime With a career spanning more than two decades, Suzanne Vega has long stressed quality over quantity. It's no surprise, therefore, that her first release in six years is more than worth the wait. Her eye for detail, laconic vocal cool, and thematic focus on New York City continue ...	Suzanne Vega Though not the songs that would put her on the pop music map--that would come with 1987's Solitude Standing--Vega's first album shows her folky songwriting origins and, song for song, may still be her best. Produced by Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, the sound is softly sculpte...	Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega It's the rare singer-songwriter whose emotional confessions rise above bathos to find true resonance with their listeners; rarer still the one who can connect their audience with the plight of everyday strangers. Suzanne Vega not only managed that feat on her unlikely, child-abus...	Nine Objects of Desire	99.9 F° Import pressing of her 1992 album that is out-of-print domestically. Suzanne Vega makes it clear from the cover inwards that she's up to something different on 99.9 F. Her fiery red and yellow photo-manipulated hair and bandaged finger stand in stark contrast to the orderly mysti...
Songs in Red and Gray Suzanne Vega remains one of the most relentlessly, mercilessly tasteful recording artists alive. Every note on Songs in Red and Gray has been arranged with the meticulous precision of a butler laying silver on a table. Every sound is so polished and buffed that you barely notice ...	Days of Open Hand Out of print in the U.S.! UK reissue of the singer/songwriter's third album, originally released in 1990. 11 tracks including 'Tired Of Sleeping', 'Book Of Dreams' and 'Men In A War'. Spectrum.	Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars "What I Am," the leadoff track on Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, was a left-field hit off this Dallas band's debut album, and it remains about the only thing they're remembered for (excepting Brickell's eventual marriage to Paul Simon). But a good part of this album is quite ...	The Reminder Feist is the solo project of Canada's Leslie Feist, a prolific artist who has also played in one capacity or another with Broken Social Scene, Kings of Convenience and half a dozen other bands. The Reminder, her third release, comes from the same well of quiet, appealing songwrit...	Tracy Chapman One of the most striking debut albums ever released, this disc instantly established Chapman as a musical force, and with good reason. Immediacy, integrity of purpose, and unqualified artistry are apparent in nearly every song. And while "Fast Cars" remains Chapman's best-know...

The Lemmonheads cover 'Luka'
This is a pretty good album. The Lemmonheads cover "Luka" on their album "Lick." Vega's original is pretty good, too.

Folk Rescue
Vega's second album, "Solitude Standing", was released in 1987. It revisited the straightforward, unpretentious folk sound and deceptively poetic format of her self-titled 1985 album, producing two fine singles, "Tom's Diner" and "Luka". At a time when folk was largely buried under a mass of big-sound rock, Vega helped rescue it. Pure voice, sweet guitar, lyrics with integrity ranging from the whimsicality of "Tom's Diner" to the powerful social message of "Luka", but with credibility and authenticity in every track. Vega help this listener rediscover contemporary music.

This CD blew me away...
When I first heard Tom's Diner it was like I was sitting there next to the artist watching these event unfold as you sat in the window booth. But I was blown away when she sang the whole thing in acapella. Luka I already like from hearing it on the radio. Ironbound and Gypsy stirred up images in my mind of hardship and fleating love. Night Vision took me a few years to figure out...yeah I am a little slow sometimes. But when I got it it was another 'wow' moment. That is what I like about Suzanne Vega's music. It makes me get lost in the lyrics images. Tom's Diner is a prime example. But if you are a person that likes lyrics that don't make you think or imagine then you shouldn't buy this CD.

A firm standing album
Despite the hype surrounding Tom's Diner and Luka, the rest of the songs on this album firmly stand on their own. The accoustics and artful poetry via Suzanne Vega stand out in her second album with thought provoking compassion. Don't merely fall into the envelope of Tom's Diner and Luka (which, while great songs, are not her only stars). After 20 years this album still holds strong and brings you to the nostalgia of a bygone era.

Mother of the MP3
According to sources on the web, the first song in this collection, Tom's Diner, was used as the model piece in the development of the mp3 compression algorithm. Thus, Suzanne Vega has earned the title, "Mother of the MP3." Somehow appropriately, since it is rendered without music in the first cut, music for Tom's Diner is played without words in the last. It is worth the price of the album if only for Tom's Diner. The rest is pretty good too.