Suzanne Vega

The cult classic "Tom's Diner" begins and ends Solitude Standing, Suzanne Vega's 1987 breakthrough that was also something of a signpost for both the urban folk and anti-folk scenes. The first track is an a cappella version, where the silences between the singer-songwriter's crisply articulated words are deafening. The last, meanwhile, actually features synthesizers and digital castanets. The similarly themed "Luka" is second in the rotation and was Vega's first bona fide (alt) hit.

Call Suzanne Vega uneasy listening. Beneath the pretty, acoustic-based melodies on her
debut album, Suzanne Vega, released two years ago, was a series of impressionistic images:
a jilted lover crying in a hallway ("Knight Moves"), a framed photograph acting as a caustic
observer of the narrator's love life ("Marlene on the Wall"), someone walking shellshocked
through a park ("Cracking"). Add to that Vega's soft, distanced voice, set to her... More >

I bet "Luka" is a grand fluke like "You're So Vain" rather than a dawning of the light like "Mrs. Robinson." Better her closely observed recent songs than a tale of brave Ulysses or a lover with "hands of raining water" (wet yes, hot no). But close observation is still Creative Writing, and if Vega eventually graduates to, say, the flat command of Ann Beattie, she'll still be precisely nowhere. Real pop lyrics ignore such strictly literary alternatives altogether. (Grade: C+)