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Beauty & Crime | 
| Artist: Suzanne Vega
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy Used: $5.22
You Save: $12.76 (71%)
Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 4483
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 68270
UPC: 946368270252
EAN: 0094636827025
ASIN: B000H6SU9A
Release Date: July 17, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Zephyr & I | | • | Ludlow Street | | • | New York Is a Woman | | • | Pornographer's Dream | | • | Frank & Ava | | • | Edith Wharton's Figurines | | • | Bound | | • | Unbound | | • | As You Are Now | | • | Angel's Doorway | | • | Anniversary |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
With a career spanning more than two decades, Suzanne Vega has long stressed quality over quantity. It's no surprise, therefore, that her first release in six years is more than worth the wait. Her eye for detail, laconic vocal cool, and thematic focus on New York City continue to distinguish her artistry, but the sonic sheen applied by British producer/multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Hogarth sparks a musical renewal. Crisp guitar riffing recalls the streetwise work of fellow New York chronicler Lou Reed, while chamber strings, electronic atmospherics, and multitracked background vocals lift the results well beyond the folk realm. Vega writes from a perspective of memory and maturity, recalling the New York of old on "Zephyr & I" and "Ludlow Street," showing the musical sophistication of bittersweet seduction on "New York Is a Woman," applying a musical Brazilian wax to "Pornographer's Dream," and contemplating her life as a wife on "Bound" and as a mother on the lullaby "As You Are Now." The results are richly satisfying throughout. --Don McLeese
Amazon.com
On Beauty & Crime, Suzanne Vega's Blue Note Records debut, the Manhattan native uses New York City as the backdrop for a collection of eleven new songs that juxtapose acoustic guitar-driven melodies with coolly synthesized beats; intensely personal lyrics with compelling, short story-like narratives; images of today's scarred cityscape with memories of Vega's old Upper West Side 'hood and Lower East Side haunts. The past commingles with the present, the public with the private, familiar sounds with the utterly new, just like the city itself. Making her first new studio album in six years, Vega says, "I feel like I really stretched my limits. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone--to sing in keys I wouldn't have sung in before, to work with different textures, to be unafraid of doing what ever sounded good to me. I wanted to make a modern classic." Suzanne Vega Photos
Album Description
2007 album produced by Jimmy Hogarth. She is accompanied by an eclectic group including Will Malone, Gerry Leonard, Lee Renaldo, Mike Visceglia and Doub Yowell. EMI.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 Some of her best work, excellent sonics November 3, 2008
W. Mullins (Brockton, MA United States)
This has to be some of her best work ever! If your a Vega fan of ANY of her past works, this CD will sure to make you happy.
I think its her best work ever.
The quality of her band/players is also excellent.
The sonics are excellent, as I own a high end audio system [$80,000+] in a dedicated/treated listening room, and can clearly hear everything that is on the disk.
I suppose on car or computer audio systems things may not seem to clear, perhaps, but in a high resolution system everything sounds very good.
I have yet to try the disk in my car......
You really can't go wrong with this CD, a must have for the S. Vega fan and others of similiar musical interests/genre.
Bold, Beautiful and Her Best September 3, 2008
Don (Connecticut)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Modern day folk at its best...she creates stories with her poetry in a minimal amount of words. Another singer-songwriter that I put in this camp is Arrica Rose especially in her new release, La La Lost.
Way To Bring It On Suzanne June 25, 2008
Bradley Jacobson
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love this album and I'm so glad I ended up buying it, you see but I had no intenion of actually buying until I heard the thing somewhere else. I've always liked Suzanne but felt she was fairly hit or miss. "Luka" is excellant as is most of the album that it came from, "Left Of Center" from Pretty In Pink is one of my all time favorite songs ever and the brilliant rendition of DNA on "Tom's Diner" sticks with you long after you've heard it but her kind of wimpy pouty vocals wear a little thin I think on a full album.
But then in 1994 came the album 99.9 (it's 99.9 Farenheit degrees but I can't find the frickin' degree symblol?) and I fell in love with it. Instead of acoustic guitars and her voice, she amped up the music with thumping pumps of electronic jambles and I loved every single song on the album. After that I once again lost interest but as Beauty & Crime was coming out, I read a review and interview with her, comparing the album to 99.9 and the fact that this was a record years in the making, since 9/11 in fact and being a New York poetess Vega had a few things to talk about, including her brother's death and her love/affection for the Big Apple. All very pondering yet full of music and fun little backing vocals, the album is great from start to finish. Again, there aren't any songs I dislike, some are obviously better than others but it's a really good album through out and I highly suggest you check it out. Best cuts: "New York Is A Woman", "Zephyr & Me", "Bound"
She sings wonderful stories. May 19, 2008
B. J. Madoff (New York City, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Suzanne is a storyteller. She writes through her music and tells her stories through song. The music and musicians are terrific. There is insight, emotion and nuance all put to a modern mix of jazz, folk and rock. These are soundtracks for a life lived in New York and as textured as the City itself.
 Listen! April 19, 2008
James Armstrong (NYC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hands down, one of the best album's of 2007, and one of Vega's best ever. "Frank & Ava" got a bit of air play, but even better are tracks like "Bound" and "New York Is a Woman." Though short (the album runs a little less than 35 minutes), this one is definitely worth owning.
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