Suzanne Vega - Beauty & Crime
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Free Music Notes for Beauty & Crime
Free Music Review: Beauty and Crime and Loss and Love
Hit: 4 Stars
One of the little ironies about Suzanne Vega's previous album, "Songs in Red and Gray" was its unfortunate proximity to 9/11. The lead song and video, "Widow's Walk," wound up being pulled from play due to its depiction of death on New York City streets. Suzanne is a NYC fixture, and she was one of the breakout artists of the 80's New York Folk City scene, along with the likes of Shawn Colvin. It took Suzanne six years and a new record label to devise the great "Beauty and Crime," easily her best work since The Debut.
The aftermath of 9/11 figures into much of this album, which is a valentine to the city Suzanne calls home. Her brother Tim is eulogized in "Ludlow Street," as simple and direct as she has ever been. "Angel's Doorway" is about her cousin's husband, a policeman stationed at Ground Zero after the attacks who comes home from work "his clothes in a cloud of the dust and the dirt and destruction." In "New York is a Woman," the visiting neophyte to the city looks out in wonder at "her ruined places, smoke and ash still rising to the sky." For the final song, which Suzanne wrote in September of 2002, "thick with ghosts, the wind whips 'round in circuitries...do they intrude on your private reveries?" she asks us.
While I doubt this album will garner the attention or respect that Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" did, it is every bit as praiseworthy. In addition to the reflections on her city and the new era that befell it, she also looks at how her own life has changed. Her new marriage is detailed in "Bound/Unbound" and there is a love letter to her daughter on "As You Are Now." There is plenty of heartache on "Beauty and Crime," but there is also hope. "Make time for all your possibilities, they live on every street," Suzanne leaves us with. After six years of wondering what the musical possibilities would be, "Beauty and Crime" was well worth the wait.
Free Music Review: I do love her but...
Hit: 3 Stars
i've heard these songs before in different guises. Having said that she never fails to take me on a journey and I haven't stopped playing it since it arrived. Her masterful lyrics and the measured tone of her voice reveal more with each play.Free Music Review: Not her best
Hit: 4 Stars
I have all of Suzanne Vega's CD's and have been a big fan of her music. She is one of my favorite singers. I would say this album is good by most standards of contemporary folk and pop music, but compared to Suzanne Vega's other albums, it definitely is weak. None of the songwriting as a whole even compares to the vast majority of her other songs in the previous six albums of hers. Instead of being fresh, original, and literary like her usual songwriting, many have cliches and, while not bad compared to other singers, are extremely weak by Vega's standards: "I am bound for you forever. When I say I am bound for you forever this is what I mean: I am bound for you forever." "Roots unbound, roots unbound, roots unbound into the ground. Free, now I'm free" etc.
Even the music in some of the songs is cliched. For example, in the song Bound, the opening sounds almost exactly like the Eurythmics' Who's That Girl. Others remind me of songs that I can't put my finger on. For example, Unbound is a song you might expect a pop singer like Olivia Newton John to sing.
Some songs are very good and what you expect from Vega: Zephyr and I, As You Are Now, Anniversary. But by Vega's talent, the others are substandard. Compare any song with songs like "Last Year's Troubles," "Marlene on the Wall," "Calypso," "I'll Never Be Your Maggie May," "Luka," nearly any of her songs from her previous six albums. None comes close.
Plus the album is extremely short. Having said all the above, Beauty and Crime is good overall and catchy by other singers' standards. . .but cliched and not nearly as good as Suzanne Vega usually is. If you are buying a Suzanne Vega CD for the first time, don't start with this one.
Free Music Review: NYC in my living room
Hit: 5 Stars
How wonderful is this album?
Dont class her as folk? Its more, something else altogether...honest rock? Who cares to categorise the un-fileable?
As good as any of her former finest. Beautiful string arrangements. The smooth salsa beats of Pornographers Dream.
The Malancholy flavour of Angel's Doorway.
The cinematic punch of Bound.
Zephyr rocks.
Ludlow St shines brilliantly.
Anniversary warms the heart.
Where does this woman falter? She keeps a level head, honesty abounds, great tunes, production...what more?
Buy it and stick it on your iPod, but dont forget to run it through the HiFi now and again. The quality is worth it.
Free Music Review: A long wait for a great album from Vega!
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is great for die hard Suzanne Vega fans. I have waited for a long time for this and it was well worth it. The tunes are well written and introspective as expected. Listening to the album is like visiting with an old friend that you haven't seen for a long time and missed terribly.