nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (07/12/85)
["Watch while the queen in one false move turns herself into a pawn"] Mark Mallet sent me this letter which contains info on Fast Folk and a review from Fast Folk of Suzanne Vega's album. He probably didn't post it because he doesn't want to be guilty of gross copyright infringement. I have no such qualms, so here it is: (When the FBI agents come, you may send them in my direction.... -- Doug Alan) --------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought you might want to see this review from the Fast Folk Musical Magazine. Fast Folk, as you might recall, is the medium on which I first heard Suzanne Vega. It is a folk magazine published 10 times per year that comes with an album of songs by various folk artists. The album which came with this issue is from a Fast Folk concert in Boston this past March (yes, Vega was there). I wanted to go but I missed it. Fast Folk is worth (to me) the money because of the its blend. You can find really good folk stuff amongst the not-so-intesting songs. Example, the 4 or so Vega songs which have appeared on the albums over the last couple of years. I originally subscribed so that I could hear Lucy Kaplanski. Subscription rate is $50 per year (US). They are: The Fast Folk Musical Magazine 178 West Houston St., Suite 9 New York, NY 10014. (212) 989-7088 On to the review: -------------- Suzanne Vega, review by Bill McCaulley [From the Fast Folk Musical Magazine, May 1985] `Suzanne Vega' is a record of great beauty that comes out of the singer/ songwriter category to challenge what acoustic guitar-based albums must sound like. Vega and her accompanists have begun to redefine, using new wave and classical sensibilities, the genre of Folk without either style suffering from the marriage. Preconceived notions of what makes popular folk music or softened rock are left behind. In its boldness this album recalls Joni Mitchell's `Hejira', which took steps away from the standard sound of previous folk/rock records, resulting in a work that was windy in its rhythmic structure and dense in sound. Vega's record has a quality all its own, using orchestral touches, straight rock, and electronics. The arrangements will be familiar to listeners of `Fast Folk', though the additional instrumentation adds new depths and colors to many of the songs. The success of this record is due in part to the delicate but distinctive programming of C.P. Roth's synthesizer, which recalls the sound of a xylophone and a string section, and also adds many new sounds to what is essentially folk-derived, if sophisticated, contemporary songwriting. The songs each rest on their own base, which is rich and lovely, and no attempt has been made to homogenize each song under the weight of one style. A clear style emerges, however, from the crisp arranging. "Cracking" -- a delicate jewel of a song -- opens the album. The sound is distant and clear at once, and has a cathedral-like resonance to it, punctuated by electric guitar lines that are sharp and restrained. "Cracking" sets the tone for most of `Suzanne Vega' in that it defines the musical vocabulary that runs through the whole of it. The quizical psychology of the song comes through in a vocal that floats in and out of the music track. Throughout this record, the acoustic guitar played by Vega is a strong underpinning, recorded so that it too has a bell-like sound that is fresh, but in no way disguising the fact that it is an acoustic guitar. "Freeze Tag" runs like a skipping stone over a cool musical framework. As with all the songs on `Suzanne Vega', the lyrics are relected in the arrangement. The childlike sing-song vocal style picks up the circular lyric scan, and they are held together by an icy synthesizer sound. What emerges in this collection of songs is a personality in isolation, describing, trying to get out. "Marlene on the Wall" is the one that gets most to the point on this idea. The unspeaking and all-seeing Marlene watches while the singer projects back and forth on a picture of Marlene her own internal struggle. The song is given a muted rock treatment, and the fun of it is the lyrical interplay between the singer and Marlene and the singer's amusement at her predicament. While the track starts out rather soft, it gets more and more edgy as the singer does more "fighting to be free". The gem of this record is "Small Blue Thing". The lyric and the music are wedded together with beautiful precision. Low frequencies generated by the synthesizer provide a solid dramatic bass without heaviness, and the sparkling high notes add to the liturgical flavor in this very introspective song. The synthesizer picks up the rain, sky, and skipping images in the lyric, and adds glassy sounds like wood block and a Japanese Koto. This track has a transparency to it that lingers for a long time. It seems that the synthesizer is programmed for high and low frequencies, leaving a window for Vega's voice to float out of. But while there is a great deal going on in "Small Blue Thing", it is not cluttered. This is a crystalline edge to this very soft song that is distant and makes the strongest claim for a new territory in what is called today's folk music. The guitar work is clear, and fingersnap-like notes punctuate small silences and lyrical transitions. This is a very strong song. "Straight Lines" turns from introspection to the wider world. The arranging gets harder here, and the songs begin to encompass more than one singer. In "Straight Lines", we watch another woman change herself, while in "Marlene" we are hearing Vega find her own footing. She is working from the outside where all the previous songs were internal ones. The girl in this song is cutting her hair: she doesn't need her flag of beauty anymore. But in the end the music goes back and forth from hard to soft, and the feeling is that turning off lovers and cutting hair won't change much. The end of this song is unresolved, like the subject of the song. This is the end of side one. "Undertow" brings the second side out of silence with a sharp guitar attack that is distinctly Vega's. Punctuated and staccato chords lead into a softly rolling lyric and build throughout the course of the song. Electric guitars and drums are added, and the song ends in rolling crescendos -- gnawing, as sharp lyrics are folded in and out of the song. This is a rock song, and more forward than the others in a tough way. "Some Journey," which was produced by Windham Hill's Steven Miller, seems suspended in time. The voice is carried forward by the percussiveness of the guitar strumming and train images in the lyric are picked up in the very legatto synthesizer lines colored by glittery flourishes. Each verse takes on a slightly different tone, and the whole piece build dramatically. The song is about questions from the past, and in the end the past is left behind with a wildly free violin line by Darol Anger. The song fades away like the memory of an old friend into the distance. "The Queen and the Soldier" and "Knight Moves" are the two songs that seem clouded by additional instruments. In "The Queen and the Soldier," the song is essentially acoustic, with harpsicord-like sounds and 12-string guitar lines that are strong and effective by the end, but that sound pedestrian at the beginning. They simply accompany and do not orchestrate like so many of the previous arrangements. There is not as much interplay with the lyrics, and while the song is great, the sound is not as original as some of the others. "Knight Moves" is the one song on the album that would have benefitted mightily had it remained a solo performance. The purely acoustic sections of it are very, very strong, while the fluttery synthesizer lines distract from a very precise guitar arrangement. Harpsichord sounds take away from the knife-like directness of the lyric of this song. The vocal is clear and sharp, and would sound so much stronger were it unencumbered. Suzaenne Vega's first album closes on a great rocking note of a song called "Neighborhood Girls". It comes out of the indistinct territory of "Knight Moves" with strong drums and clean guitar lines. Vega's voice is right up front, more so than on other songs, and her diction is crisp so that when she spits out some of the lines, like "eyes of ice", they ring out. Nowhere on this record does Suzanne try to belt like a rocker. Even where her singing is hard, it is her clearness of voice and diction that carries strength. The strength of the lyrics cuts through, and the underpinning arrangements do what they set out to. This album sets up new definitions for what singer/songwriter albums can sound like. It is a deliberately produced record that breaks up precon- ceptions and does not try to disguise itself as one kind of pop record while being another. `Suzanne Vega' defines it own territory. Vega has made a clean, modern sounding album using modern instrumentation with some very classical sensibilities. Her remarkably innovative first album will sound fresh and strong for a very long time.
nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (07/28/85)
[Jane Siberry's album "no borders here" is wonderful!] > From: ryan@fremen.DEC (Mike Ryan DTN 264-8280 MK01-2/H32) > Glad you like Suzanne, Doug So am I! > [The Fast Folk reviewer] Missed the suicide interpretation [of > "Straight Lines"] completely (straight lines can be the way she cuts > her hair, bars on a window,... or slashed wrists). A very powerful > song. Wow, thanks! I missed the suicide interpretation too. But you're definitely right. It seems so obvious now... > "The Queen and the Soldier" is the closest thing on the album to a > more typical folk song, carrying (what at least appears to be) a > straight-forward story. Most of her lyrics are more abstract, and rely > more on evoking images than telling stories. I actully think the lyrics for "The Queen and the Soldier" are some of the best lyrics on the album. It seems to tell a straight forward story, but some of the things in the story are very strange and hint at other meanings. Lyrics like And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread It cuts me inside and often I've bled" He laid his hand on top of her head And he bowed her down to the ground signal that there's more going on than just the surface-level story (I'm just not sure exactly what, though...). This type of layering of meaning (which I also rave about so much in Kate Bush lyrics) I find really fascinating. This way the lyrics can be just as deep as something that at first appears more abstract, but it also gives you something to grab onto at the beginning other than just confusion. "You can't talk down to symmetry" Doug Alan nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)