I present to you songs from my four favorite Suzanne Vega albums. I'm not so crazy about Days of Open Hand, and Songs in Red and Gray, the breakup album, works well as a whole but doesn't have any really stand-out tracks, in my opinion.

From Nine Objects of Desire, a very warm and sexy album, one of the warmest and sexiest songs on it, Caramel. The "nine objects of desire," as I recall, are four men, a photograph, a woman, her baby daughter, Death, and a plum. I cannot help but read the plum as a metaphorical as well as an actual fruit, though-- the Plum of Knowledge.

Two tracks from 99.9 F, an album which I thought was overproduced and discordant when I first listened to it, but which has grown on me a lot since the chance discovery that it functions as a soundtrack for one of the characters in Naruto made me dig it up and listen to it again. That discovery happened like this:

[livejournal.com profile] octopedingenue: "I think of Blood Sings as so-and-so's theme song.

Me: "You mean Blood Makes Noise, right?

Both of us: "Whoa, check out some of the other tracks on that album."

Suzanne Vega is her first album, with lovely melodies and a cool, controlled tone in the lyrics overall, though not so much in the two tracks I'm hightlighting, Undertow and
Marlene on the Wall.

Solitude Standing had two famous tracks, "Luka" and "Tom's Diner," but I especially like the title song.

Order the series from Amazon: Naruto, Volume 1

From: [identity profile] marith.livejournal.com


Songs in Red and Gray is a breakup album? mmm, that makes sense now I think about it.

The first one is still my favorite, but Red&Gray is probably my second. And "The Weapon Song" is my favorite track on it; gives me images of a woman in a cabaret, defiantly, to an audience of men all of whom are more powerful than her.
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

From: [personal profile] larryhammer


99.9 F put me off looking for more Vega, and I eventually got rid of her first two albums because I'd stopped listening to them. I think I should check out some of her more recent work.

---L.

From: [identity profile] tekalynn.livejournal.com


I adore Suzanne Vega, although I haven't heard her most recent album (just never got around to buying it), and especially love her earlier work.

From: [identity profile] tekalynn.livejournal.com


Ah, thanks to this post, I now have "Gypsy" going through my head. I always sing my own harmony to it, something I've never done with any of her other songs.

From: [identity profile] iamsab.livejournal.com

the sun is blinding, dizzy golden dancing green, through the park in the afternoon, wondering where


If you get a chance, will you upload me "Cracking" and "The Queen and the Soldier"? Both from Solitude Standing. I love those songs.

LOVE,
EMILY.

P.S. 4th of July barbecue at our house! Stay tuned for e-mail.

From: (Anonymous)


Hunh, Songs is actually one of my favorite Vega albums -- "Penitent," "Widow's Walk," "(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May," "If I Were a Weapon," "Solitaire"....I think the only song off it I don't like a lot is "Last Year's Troubles," which funnily enough is the one most people seem to remember. "St Clare" is right up there with "Rosemary" (off Retrospective) as my 2 favorite Vega songs ever. I like Nine and "Caramel" a lot (IIRC it was heavily used in the trailer for some recent movie). "Marlene" and "Solitude Standing" are beautiful too. I remember 99 being described as "heavy metal" when it came out, which seems v odd now, altho I guess everyone was expecting her to rewrite "Luka" for the rest of her career. I only got all of her stuff off Emusic.com 2-3 years ago and started listening to it intently then; before that all I'd heard was her (early) MTV videos.

-- Moi ([livejournal.com profile] the_red_shoes)

From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_swallow/


Vega was maybe the first pop musician I listened to on my own. I saw her at a booksigning in a Borders when I was eleven.

From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com


"marlene on the wall" is one of my favorite songs ever.
.

Most Popular Tags

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags