Album: Beauty & Crime / 11 tracks / July 17, 2007 / Blue Note
After a six-year absence from the music industry in which Suzanne Vega endured the death of her brother, the aftermath of 
9/11 and struggling to regain a foothold in life and her own career, she has returned with the July 17 release of Beauty & Crime. This collection of ballads and cryptic comments concerning relationships should not be mistaken for Judy Garland singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” Songs such as “Frank And Ava,” make Jann Arden’s “Insensitive” seem as sweet as candyfloss.
The cynical approach to lyrics continues with “New York Woman” a ballad in which Vega uses double edged metaphors of a businessman’s relationship with New York City to represent the sometimes passionate and at other times cold heart of a woman—or is it the other way around? The song also briefly alludes to 9/11. Vega is not an outsider passing judgment on The Big Apple but a New Yorker who feels passionate about her city and is exercising poetic license, while sharing her insights with the listener.
In a folk rock sort of way Vega reminds one of an earlier Sheryl Crowe only dripping in sarcasm. Vega’s words prompt tough questions about life, love and relationships. While you may not share her views, one cannot deny her genius as a poet and her sublime often-jagged vocals. The album is well orchestrated featuring among others, Vega’s own performance on acoustic guitar, Gerry Leonar, Jim Hogarth (both on acoustic guitar), Lee Ranaldo (electric guitar), Matthew Ward (violin) and cellist Philip Shepard. Scottish powerhouse KT Tunstall is featured as a background vocalist.
Beauty & Crime was recorded both in New York City and London, produced by Jimmy Hogarth (Corinne Bailey Rae, KT Tunstall) and Tchad Blake did the mixing.
“Frank And Ava” takes a cryptic look at relationships and musically comes across sounding like a folk pop version of Sheryl Crowe.
Just as you are wondering if Suzanne Vega is a recluse from happiness a jewel appears on this album in the form of “As You Are Now,” a tender tribute to mothers everywhere and one might guess is a love song for her own daughter. Vega raised her daughter as a single parent in the midst of a downward spiraling career, and has in interviews admitted that her love for her daughter was what kept her going in those years out of the spotlight. It is only as your children grow older or if you are as unfortunate as I am to lose them to death prematurely that words such as these become more poignant, “I will treasure all your teeth / your laughter and the pearls beneath / keep them in a cardboard box / through the tickings and the tocks / I will gather all your hair / floating in the sultry air / we will make a braid of gold /for you to keep when you are old/” The strings arrangements help establish a gentler mood.
Other songs such as “Zephyr & I” allow us to eavesdrop on a conversation between the singer and a graffiti artist as they reminisce about the New York neighborhood they once knew. The background vocals support and do not compete with Vega, nor are they lost in the background as something indistinguishable.
Suzanne Vega’s Beauty & Crime is not for everyone but if you like music that causes you to think more deeply such as that of Leonard Cohen or Joni Mitchell than you will appreciate this booklet of songs collected by Suzanne Vega.
Reviewed By: Joe Montague
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Reviewed July 2007
