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This is a very good collection of new recordings of Suzanne Vega songs from the past -- plus a new track, "The Man Who Played God", which has nice complex lyrics about people with an urge to change and shape nature and their surroundings.
Some songs, like the lead track "Luka" or "Angel's Doorway", are just Suzanne Vega with acoustic guitar. Others have a bit more complicated instrumentation. A good guitar-and-bongo version of "Zephyr & I", a string quartet on "New York is a Woman", and a cello on "The Queen and the Soldier".
But this isn't "Suzanne Vega unplugged". Electric basses and guitars make their presence felt, including nice, understated, reverb-soaked guitar on "In Liverpool" and "Ironbound/Fancy Poultry". (I have always enjoyed "Fancy Poultry", with its macabre description of the retail chicken industry.) On "Fat Man and Dancing Girl", the percussion, although acoustic, creates an interesting electronic feel with studio effects, including rotation between the left and right stereo channels.
The most remarkable track is the reworking of "Tom's Diner" -- Vega's biggest hit of all. This version borrows a lot from the famous dance remix that still gets a lot of radio play. Vega's familiar vocal holds together a funky, repetitive disco-era bass line at the bottom end, with rhythm electric guitar and atmospheric string parts on top -- including some nice pizzicato playing in the middle section.
If you are getting the MP3 album, be sure to pick up the "deluxe edition" with four bonus tracks, including a mandolin-backed "Priscilla", a great new version of "Wooden Horse" (Vega's version of the story of Casper Hauser), and a rousing "Luka" in Spanish. ¡Olé!
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Beautiful new versions of some of Suzanne's classics. The new recording of Luka is as striking as ever, and I think I like this new Tom's Diner more than the DNA version. And at $3.99, you cant beat the price!
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These are great re-recordings of previously released songs from Suzanne. Like many artists, Suzanne gets only a small percentage of the revenue generated by her back-catalog of recordings. These new recordings get more of the revenue directly to Suzanne.
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