Suzanne Vega: Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles

Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles Amanuensis Productions Tour Dates 02/05/14 Bristol Colston Hall 02/06/14 Nottingham Nottingham Royal Concert 02/07/14 London The Barbican 02/20/14 Dublin Olympia Theatre 04/30/14 Cambridge, MA The Sinclair 05/01/14 Natick, MA Center for the Arts in Natick 05/02/14 Brooklyn, NY The Bell House 05/04/14 New York City Winery 05/05/14 Philadelphia, PA World Cafe 05/07/14 South Orange, NJ SOPAC 05/08/14 Annapolis Ram’s Head On Stage 05/09/14 Alexandria, VA Birchmere Music Hall 05/10/14 Lumberton, NC Carolina Civic Center 05/11/14 Charlotte, NC Booth Playhouse 05/13/14 Ann Arbor, MI The Ark 05/15/14 Chicago, IL Old Town School of Folk 05/16/14 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre 05/17/14 Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center 05/19/14 Portland, OR Aladdin Theatre 05/20/14 Seattle, WA The Triple Door 05/22/14 Grass Valley, CA Center for ther Arts 05/23/14 San Francisco, CA Great American Music 05/24/14 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre 05/25/14 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern Read More Suzanne Vega 009 We Heart Music's Diner Vu DNA/Suzanne Vega - 'Tom's Diner' 14:16…

I remember the first time I saw Suzanne Vega, she was on television, defending her song "Luka", which was about an abused child. What I thought was interesting was that the song was set like a pop/folk song... not exactly the medium for such a heavy subject. I did eventually pick up Solitude Standing on cassette in 1987 (and eventually upgraded to compact disc in the 90s).

What I've come to love about Suzanne Vega is that she's a storyteller. She writes music about the things she's observed, sometime from her point of view, sometime through other people's eyes.

I followed Vega's career up to 99.9F°, where she went a bit folktronica. I can sort of see the natural progression, I mean her vocals lent itself extremely well on the hit DNA remix of "Tom's Diner".

Tom's Restaurant (07 Mar 2001) photo: Vu

Speaking of which, I've actually eaten at the real-life Tom's Restaurant, which Vega's song is based on. Hearing Vega's descriptive lyrics on "Tom's Diner", I can imagine that she spent a day at the restaurant and wrote down her observation of all the different kind of customers.

Incidentally, we love the song, and used it in episode #9 of W♥M Radio. And also a bit of a trivia, but "Tom's Diner" was very first MP3 file. Apparently the inventor of MP3, Karlheinz Brandenburg, heard the a cappella song and used it as a the basic building block in sound compression.

Which brings us to present day. Suzanne Vega's latest album Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles comes out in a few weeks (February 18, 2014, on Amanuensis Productions), her eight studio album after a long seven year absent. If you live in the UK, the album is out this week (Feb 2nd).

With Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles, it feels like Vega has never left us. Songs on Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles are pop/rock little stories. The music exists to help illustrate her stories, not to distract us from what's important.

Where she really shine, is when it's just acoustic and Vega's strong vocals. Example of this can be heard on "Portrait of the Knight of Wands", which sounds like an old song, but ironically with some technical trickery and with these lyrics "his mission/transmission/of technology".

My favorite song on the album is "I Never Wear White", a pretty fun, catchy, and straight-forward song about a black poet: "My color is black, black black, black is for secrets. Outlaws and dancers, for the poet of the dark. Black is the truth.... If they need to pick a single for the album, this is the one. Black is the color.

I simply cannot wait to hear these songs live, which you can catch Suzanne Vega on tour this Summer.

Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles will be out February 18, via Amanuensis Productions.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ suzannevega.com

Comments

[Neil b]

I went to see Suzanne at the Birmingham Town Hall this past Monday 2/2/14 where we were treated to a number of the new albums tracks as well as some old favourites. I can honestly say I was astonished at the level of quality in the live performance. Suzanne has always delivered live, I've seen her 4 times over the last decade, and this time was no different, but the way the songs were reproduced on just an electric (plus effects) guitar and six string acoustic was truly awesome. If you get the opportunity to see the show, snatch it with both hands! And if not, well there's always the album.

P.s. Natasha North supporting was pretty amazing too