"A lot of people were asking me to [tell them] about what was going on in New York [at that time]," she says.
Changes and New Songs
In the interim between then and now, Vega went through some business shifts—changing management and record companies—as well as writing some articles for the New York Times and doing a radio show called American Mavericks on PRI. Then she started writing again, spending a lot of time "thinking so intently" about her new songs."It's wonderful to have new material," she says of her newest record, Beauty and Crime (Blue Note, 2007). She worked some of it out on her own before calling in producer Jimmy Hogarth, whose work she'd come to admire after hearing what he did with Australian artist Sia's most recent record. "He came to New York and ... I just liked his attitude," she says. "I knew he could do a good job and get this album done quickly."
Part-way through, Hogarth called up his friend, fellow Scot and singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, to work on some vocal arrangements and sing backup on some of the tracks.
A Clearer Picture
As much as the album evolved under the hand of Jimmy Hogarth, though, Vega was confident with her original concepts. When asked, she explains that the arrangements were quite clear in her head before she even entered the studio. Still, she says, "I go into the studio with [more of a] rough draft of what I would like to hear," she admits. "You've got to leave a little wiggle room."In all, her favorite song on the disc is "Pornographer's Dream"—a dashing narrative tune that could be about New York itself, if not simply an enviably shameless woman. The song, which swings through the middle of Beauty and Crime with its tango-like rhythms is, indeed, one of the strongest moments in Vega's album-long tribute to her hometown.
A Tribute to Manhattan
She describes the record as "little stories with different angles and points of view." She says the evolution of the album into a tribute to New York wasn't entirely coincidental. Because of the questions journalists were asking her around the release of Songs in Red and Grey, she thought it might be interesting to write an album about the events as they were unfolding in the city. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it," she says. But it wound up less an overarching story album, and more a collection of "loosely connected songs having to do with New York."Whether well-structured narrative or "loosely connected" collection, it's clear that Suzanne Vega's craftsmanship as a songwriter is as strong as ever, and the album is a fitting tribute for the city that inspired it.
For more information about Beauty and Crime and a list of Suzanne Vega's tour dates, visit her Web site.
