Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing (1987)

"Luka," Suzanne Vega's breakthrough hit single from 1987, astonished everyone with its economy of words and its understated rock arrangement in expressing the pain of child abuse from the point of view of the abused child.  It was a very subtle approach, much less obvious and pompous than Pat Benatar's "Hell Is For Children."  People who then bought Solitude Standing, the LP from which it came, found that it was no fluke, at least not artistically; Suzanne Vega's second album sparkles with songs offering sparse, driving music and expressive lyrics with sensitive introspection and subtle vignettes of urban life.  For listeners exasperated by the mindless MTV pop dominating radio at the time, Vega offered a refreshing alternative.

Some critics were not so convinced.  Writing in USA Today, Edna Gunderson called Vega a "folk singer ordinaire, with the grating whimper of an injured Lassie," and she dismissed her songs as "literary conceit more suited to college anthologies than pop charts." While I obviously disagree with Gunderson on the former point, though, her assessment of Vega's songwriting was actually spot-on. Even Vega herself - who became a favorite of the college crowd with her self-titled 1985 debut album - admitted that her songs were "not exactly Top Forty material." But those of us college students who were her fans heard in her a performer who would revolutionize songwriting to the point where they would be Top Forty material.

I've already talked about how wrong I was about that on this blog, so I won't re-litigate that here.  So I'll just say this - Solitude Standing is a strong album, even if it didn't spark a revolt against MTV pop. Co-producer and Patti Smith sideman Lenny Kaye contributes with fellow co-producer Stephen Addabbo a sound on this record that's both contemporary and fresh; only the occasional synthesizer lines and the clean, antiseptic veneer give this away as an eighties record.  Its heavier, more intense numbers feature electric guitars that cut through the air, supported by pulsating bass undercurrents and dry drums; a song like "In The Eye," a confrontational song about facing fear, is so tightly wound it almost snaps, while the title song finds Vega unable to trust the offer of comfort from solitude, who appears here in the person of a woman, as the music lashes out in fits. Even on the lighter numbers, the sound is crisp and dry, rarely giving into sentimentality; when Vega sings of half the world in sweetness and the other half in fear on the muted "Night Vision," you get the feeling that she's more in tune with the latter.

That said, there are some wonderfully tender moments here, such as the moody, sympathetic sketch of the markets in the Ironbound section of Newark in "Ironbound/Fancy Poultry;" thanks to its meandering keyboards and its imagery of wires and rail lines insulating this little world from the outside, it's the most loving musical portrait of New Jersey not written by Bruce Springsteen.  "Calypso" and "Gypsy" are warm depictions of romance; the ;former ;song, set to quiet keyboard lines, expresses love for a man who is taken but can't be kept, while the latter juxtaposes pleas for intimacy against a shimmering, low-key acoustic guitar.

Vega bookends Solitude Standing with two versions of "Tom's Diner," a song comprised of a series of her observations of the morning rush over breakfast while she recalls a special memory.  The first version that opens the album is a terse a capella performance with a humorously deadpan tone in Vega's vocal, while the second version that closes the album is an instrumental take that sounds like a lethargic Swiss folk ensemble.  It's a wonderful joke, showing that Vega has never taken herself seriously.  In retrospect, we college students from the eighties shouldn't have taken seriously the prospect of her leading a musical revolution - ironically, the pressure to do so caused her to go AWOL for a couple of years, only to disappoint us with her soporific 1990 album Days of Open Hand - but I'm still glad we still had Solitude Standing to get us through finals week. 

(This is my last Sunday record review for 2012; I need to take another break for awhile. Look for me to resume writing about records either January 6 or January 13.)