It's difficult to distance music appreciation from personal experience.That's inevutably what we wrap oir tastes and judgements aroind. It's virtually impossible to disentangle perseptions and associations and why would we even want to. Suzanne Vega reminds me of a girlfriend I went through university with who really liked Marlene on the Wall when we started going out and so I have an association of her and that song in particular. which is related unextricably to the time when we were falling in love. I love that first album still.I could make a reasonable argument as to why I rate it but to what degree is my appreciation related to rose tinted spectacles of an incredibly special moment in my life ?
We went to see Vega when she played the university we were at in the second year. It's a slightly darker memory for a number of reasons. Vega was touring her second album Solitude Standing and it wasn't a particularly memorable gig or pleasant evening for reasons I won't trouble you with.. As a result I find it difficult to play the second album now without my memory banks clouding the experience although there's nothing wrong with Solitude Standing. But I just can't view it objectively. It has bad associations so I'd rather play the first.
Never mind all that. Suzanne's back and she has new ware to flog Flying With Angels. .It's her tenth album and by now you know pretty much what it's going to sound like. She found her groove right from the off and has stuck to her path. She was once a waif like poetic sould with a bit of an edge who made you want to move to Greenwich Village and find a similar type to move into a loft with.
She's still a craftswoman, an artisan. Some songs here work better than others. When she starts to rock out on Witch I felt she could rein it in a little, At times the rhymes are slightly glib. The songs where she appreciates the moment and goes in with the surgeon's knife there are some gentle affecting flashes of inspiration,, Chambermaid was a particularly affecting twist on Dylan's I Want You, Last Train From Mariupol is an indication that romance will never be dead. I had a nice forty minutes with this last nighr. It's an accomplished and dignified record worthy of her name, Her name is Suzanne...
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