SONGS IN RED AND GRAY
Suzanne Vega
(Universal)
RATING: three and a half
I thought I knew Suzanne Vega. After falling in love with the smash hit “Tom’s Diner” on her breakthrough Solitude Standing, I worked backwards through her catalogue, and discovered what her relatively small but loyal following already knew: that here was a singularly literate songwriter who had a great knack for telling complete stories in the space of a song. Her songs were intelligent and evocative, but they weren’t exactly radio friendly, and so her releases have mostly been overlooked by the general public. Though a fan, I knew better than to expect anything other than artsy, left-of-center pieces that were poetic at their best, and pale at their worst.
And then came 1992’s 99.9F. Longtime listeners were stunned by this outing, which presented an all-new Suzanne Vega, trading in her folk-tinged signature sound for a newer, weirder, dancier, more electronic style. But that wasn’t the end of it. Just when I thought I’d pegged (and liked) Vega’s new direction, she released Nine Objects of Desire in 1996, revealing yet another total turn-around. Ditching the electronica of the previous release, Nine Objects was a heady album whose seductiveness and sexiness was all old-fashioned.
It’s been a long time since then, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Vega used that ample time to plot another makeover. Six years later and Vega astonishes again with Songs in Red and Gray. But the surprise this time is that she doesn’t surprise.
The 13 songs in the album recall the Vega of old, the one who was a gifted songwriter but wasn’t armed with great studio chops. Songs of Red and Gray is stripped down to the essentials, without the flashy technopop of 99.9F or the caramel romance of Nine Objects of Desire. The good news is that Vega remains the storyteller that she always was. And most of the stories she tells this time around seem to be about emancipation. “(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May” is a declaration of romantic independence, where “a woman leaves a man/ and so a world turns on its end.” That sounds brave, but it’s not without its price; there’s also a lot of pain and regret, especially when she’s singing about a marriage in trouble. “Soap and water/ take the day from my hand/ scrub the salt from my stinging skin/ slip me loose of this wedding band,” goes a typically melancholy line from “Soap and Water.” In “Widow’s Walk,” she imagines herself a sailor’s wife, singing, “That line is the horizon/ We watch the wind and set the sail/ But save ourselves when all omens/ point to fail.”
Although Vega has always been good about imagining personas to inhabit—whether it’s an abused child (“Luka”), a pensive woman (“Tom’s Diner”), or a hustler on the make (“No Cheap Thrill”)—it’s hard not to infer autobiographical notes from this. Her husband (now ex-) Mitchell Froom is noticeably absent from the album’s credits for the first time since he produced 99.9F and Nine Objects of Desire. Whether or not the couple’s breakup contributed to the emotions driving Songs from Red and Gray, it’s a little disappointing to find Vega’s music losing the luster of her past two albums. Was that really all Mitchell Froom’s doing?
Well, not all of it, clearly. Suzanne Vega was already an accomplished musician before Mitchell Froom’s name ever appeared on her album notes, and if she returns to old form, it can’t be all bad. It’s still a great pleasure to be audience to Vega’s delicate voice and her poetic lyrics, and once in a while there are also catchy, almost radio-friendly tunes. Songs like “It Makes Me Wonder” and “Penitent,” like most of the songs on the album, are so whole and so distinctively Vega’s that you won’t feel anything missing.
It’s when she—or new producer Rupert Hine, at least—tries to fill in the holes that things go awry. “Solitaire” attempts to go over old ground, and instead it sounds like a very bad outtake from 99F. Thankfully, it’s the only one of its kind on the album.
Overall, Songs in Red and Gray is still ahead of many other releases for its revisitation of old-fashioned songwriting values. If nothing else, the sparse production on this album serves to prove that, if you take away everything else, good, solid songwriting will remain.—Kristine Fonacier
(Universal)
RATING: three and a half
I thought I knew Suzanne Vega. After falling in love with the smash hit “Tom’s Diner” on her breakthrough Solitude Standing, I worked backwards through her catalogue, and discovered what her relatively small but loyal following already knew: that here was a singularly literate songwriter who had a great knack for telling complete stories in the space of a song. Her songs were intelligent and evocative, but they weren’t exactly radio friendly, and so her releases have mostly been overlooked by the general public. Though a fan, I knew better than to expect anything other than artsy, left-of-center pieces that were poetic at their best, and pale at their worst.
And then came 1992’s 99.9F. Longtime listeners were stunned by this outing, which presented an all-new Suzanne Vega, trading in her folk-tinged signature sound for a newer, weirder, dancier, more electronic style. But that wasn’t the end of it. Just when I thought I’d pegged (and liked) Vega’s new direction, she released Nine Objects of Desire in 1996, revealing yet another total turn-around. Ditching the electronica of the previous release, Nine Objects was a heady album whose seductiveness and sexiness was all old-fashioned.
It’s been a long time since then, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Vega used that ample time to plot another makeover. Six years later and Vega astonishes again with Songs in Red and Gray. But the surprise this time is that she doesn’t surprise.
The 13 songs in the album recall the Vega of old, the one who was a gifted songwriter but wasn’t armed with great studio chops. Songs of Red and Gray is stripped down to the essentials, without the flashy technopop of 99.9F or the caramel romance of Nine Objects of Desire. The good news is that Vega remains the storyteller that she always was. And most of the stories she tells this time around seem to be about emancipation. “(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May” is a declaration of romantic independence, where “a woman leaves a man/ and so a world turns on its end.” That sounds brave, but it’s not without its price; there’s also a lot of pain and regret, especially when she’s singing about a marriage in trouble. “Soap and water/ take the day from my hand/ scrub the salt from my stinging skin/ slip me loose of this wedding band,” goes a typically melancholy line from “Soap and Water.” In “Widow’s Walk,” she imagines herself a sailor’s wife, singing, “That line is the horizon/ We watch the wind and set the sail/ But save ourselves when all omens/ point to fail.”
Although Vega has always been good about imagining personas to inhabit—whether it’s an abused child (“Luka”), a pensive woman (“Tom’s Diner”), or a hustler on the make (“No Cheap Thrill”)—it’s hard not to infer autobiographical notes from this. Her husband (now ex-) Mitchell Froom is noticeably absent from the album’s credits for the first time since he produced 99.9F and Nine Objects of Desire. Whether or not the couple’s breakup contributed to the emotions driving Songs from Red and Gray, it’s a little disappointing to find Vega’s music losing the luster of her past two albums. Was that really all Mitchell Froom’s doing?
Well, not all of it, clearly. Suzanne Vega was already an accomplished musician before Mitchell Froom’s name ever appeared on her album notes, and if she returns to old form, it can’t be all bad. It’s still a great pleasure to be audience to Vega’s delicate voice and her poetic lyrics, and once in a while there are also catchy, almost radio-friendly tunes. Songs like “It Makes Me Wonder” and “Penitent,” like most of the songs on the album, are so whole and so distinctively Vega’s that you won’t feel anything missing.
It’s when she—or new producer Rupert Hine, at least—tries to fill in the holes that things go awry. “Solitaire” attempts to go over old ground, and instead it sounds like a very bad outtake from 99F. Thankfully, it’s the only one of its kind on the album.
Overall, Songs in Red and Gray is still ahead of many other releases for its revisitation of old-fashioned songwriting values. If nothing else, the sparse production on this album serves to prove that, if you take away everything else, good, solid songwriting will remain.—Kristine Fonacier
posted by Kristine F. | Saturday, December 01, 2001
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home