Customer Reviews

Close-Up Vol. 1, Love Songs

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the era of omnipresent auto-tune along comes an artist who has the courage to put her voice out there virtually unprocessed sometimes backed by nothing but her guitar. As a result you will not hear pitch perfect vocals here. Sometimes the deep emotions Suzanne is feeling as she sings cause her voice to waver or quake.

So why does this effort rate 5 stars? Stripping away the studio trappings means you will experience a deep emotional connection to every word Suzanne sings. The words remain pristine and poetic and in these stripped down arrangements they shine like diamonds. Many of the old songs are rephrased, sang in new ways by a more mature artist. Songs such as "Harbor Song" reveal their true emotional power in whole new ways when the external trappings have been stripped away.

Finally, Suzanne Vega is a true singer/songwriter. You won't find six different people claiming credit on every song she sings as is the case with so many other "singer/songwriters" who have never written a single song by themselves and won't sing anything somebody else writes unless they get a piece of the songwriting credits and the royalties. Suzanne is the real deal! This album is worth your time and money.

On October 12, 2010, Suzanne Vega released Volume 2 of the Close-Up CD's (Close-Up 2: People & Places - select the Deluxe MP3 download version). Volume 2 is the much stronger CD.

This is an amazing, wonderful album. Suzanne Vega has gone back to the studio, removed all the production from the recordings, and stripped her songs to the most important elements. There's no overpowering perfection and extra instruments on these recordings. You can hear Suzanne breathe into the microphone, and you can hear her fingers glide over the guitar strings; you feel as if Suzanne Vega is in your living room performing. These are not unplugged versions of her songs, they are songs performed in the singer song writer tradition, using just the right number of instruments to convey the emotion of the song. On some songs there are backing instruments, on others it is just Suzanne, her voice and acoustic guitar.

If I had only listened to this album by itself, I would declare it fabulous. However, now that Volume 2 has been released, there is a new bar. Volume 1 sounds a bit flatter, with less emotion. These are love songs, they are tender. But they have less range; I feel a bit less emotion with Volume 1. There's more of a Bossa Nova and old time jazz singer flavor running through these songs. The flavor is not unpleasant, just not nearly as powerful and moving as the songs on Volume 2. The Volume 1 songs sound a bit more like the original recordings with similar tone and tempo (Volume 2 mixes things up a lot).

I still love this album. Taken as a whole, with Volumes 1 and 2 playing on shuffle, Suzanne Vega's music cannot be beaten. Her voice has matured and improved so much in the past few years. She sings and plays with a confidence that is wonderful. These discs are something new and wonderful. Even though I am very familiar with the original recordings, these songs sit beautifully in my Suzanne Vega collection.

In the era of omnipresent auto-tune along comes an artist who has the courage to put her voice out there virtually unprocessed sometimes backed by nothing but her guitar. As a result you will not hear pitch perfect vocals here. Sometimes the deep emotions Suzanne is feeling as she sings cause her voice to waver or quake.

So why does this effort rate 5 stars? Stripping away the studio trappings means you will experience a deep emotional connection to every word Suzanne sings. The words remain pristine and poetic and in these stripped down arrangements they shine like diamonds. Many of the old songs are rephrased, sang in new ways by a more mature artist. Songs such as "Harbor Song" reveal their true emotional power in whole new ways when the external trappings have been stripped away.

Finally, Suzanne Vega is a true singer-songwriter. You won't find six different people claiming credit on every song she sings as is the case with so many other "singer-songwriters" who have never written a single song by themselves and won't sing anything somebody else writes unless they get a piece of the songwriting credits and the royalties. Suzanne is the real deal! This album is worth your time and money.

Suzanne Vega is the real thing. If you remember ther 1987 hit song 'Luka' and, like me, were one of those who loved it, this album is for you. It is filled with her wonderful dissonant and melodic voice (yes, both together) and the songs are incredibly good. 'Gypsy' is one of my favorites. It is a love song about a woman who wants to be held like a baby who can't stop crying by a man she's recently met. He's a potter, lean and wise and the romance is full-blown in Vega's song. 'Caramel' is a jazzy cut that makes you want to get up and dance. 'Songs in Red and Grey' is about an affair seen through the eyes of a child. 'If You Were in My Movie' is a winsome and creative cut where Vega imagines her lovers in different roles - the doctor, the detective, etc. 'Some Journey' is about the imaginings of where we would be now had we met on a journey. 'Bound' is a powerful cut about the ravagings of the world on the body and soul.

The songs tell stories of love and sometimes pain, but they are Vega through and through. I heard part of this album on NPR and read the description and history of this album's creation, also listened to cuts from each song. It's a CD I can't afford NOT to have, it's that beautiful.

When I first heard Suzanne Vega in the 1980s, her lyrically-powerful yet fragile voice seized me. I followed her through the next couple decades, enjoying each new album, and the intelligent, yet vulnerable, lyrics she produced. This album reinterprets songs from throughout her career and prior albums.

The cover of this album shows a sepia-tinted black and white photograph of her and her guitar. I think this image perfectly matches what one receives from the album itself. She strips each song to its essentials. Her instrumentation is spare. And yet Suzanne Vega's delicately-beautiful voice unfolds the lyrics with heartbreakingly-clear precision, the tracks exquisitely shaded with the emotion appropriate to each lyric's subject.

I particularly like "Bound." In my mind or heart, I hear a soul whose lover has left or is leaving, but who remains suspended between despair and hope that perhaps that lover can be reclaimed: "And I ask, I'm asking you / If you might still want me." Somehow, the gentle interplay of guitar and voice captures this ephemeral moment of intermixed sorrow, expectation, acceptance, wistfulness, and questioning much more clearly than the more fully orchestrated arrangement of the same song from her "Beauty and Crime" album.

Ms Vega recorded these songs many years ago, so why bother with a new CD? The voice is terrific, perhaps even better than all those years ago. The presentation is a bit more emotional, more serious.

For some listeners, this project will seem unnecessary and redundant. Me, I found value in this collection. I still enjoy it after repeated plays.

I've been listening to Suzanne Vega's: Close Up Vol. 1, Love Songs for a time now, trying to put my finger on exactly what went terribly wrong with this recording. The fact of the matter is I rather enjoyed Solitude Standing and Days of Open Hand in the '80s and when given a full studio treatment Vega's songs can be quite appealing. But when her music is laid-bare as it is on this predominantly acoustic guitar and voice disc these tunes, that most will remember well, sound awfully dull and uninspired. The problem I think is Vega's wispy, oh-so thin voice. When exposed unadorned like this I notice that Vega -- who really has a kind of speak/sing delivery -- rarely can sustain a note and ends up sounding frequently flat. This, for me, is a failing that also plagues Canadian singer Lynn Miles. However, I think Vega is a much better songwriter than Miles. Small Blue Thing, the first track on Love Songs, is a great song by any measure. Marlene On The Wall, from Solitude Standing, is another beautiful tune, but it's just too naked given the arrangement on this disc. I haven't heard the other two discs in this series so can't comment on their quality. I have no quibbles with an artist re-visiting her back catalogue to present a more intimate canvas for early, treasured works. And I think many folks who like Suzanne Vega will appreciate this album, but to my ears it reveals Vega's shortcomings, not her strengths.

Suzanne Vega has decided to re-record some of her earlier songs and publish them in a "Close-Up" series. This volume 1 is called "Love Songs". Almost all Vega's studio albums are represented on the release, and despite the fact that the songs were written over a period of more than twenty years, they work well together.

Some will surely find the collection redundant, since all the songs are largely performed very much like the originals. Many at a slightly slower pace, one has been lowered half a tone. The arrangements are simpler with Vega's acoustic guitar as the turning-point. However, there is also fine backing with both drums, bass and electric guitar. Incredible how little Vega's voice has changed over the years and has in no way been weakened

Although it is a great pleasure to listen to the album, I don't really think that these new versions have much that the old ones did not have too, and I don't think there is one single case where I would prefer the new song rather than the old. The great variation in the arrangements on Vega's original albums you'' easily miss - not least the very personal Mitchel Froom productions.

Yet I am already looking forward to "Close-Up Vol 2 People and Places", which is planned for release in September 2010.

I've been a fan for a number of years and have had the priveledge of hearing her live. When I bought this I thought it was going to be more of a "greatest hits" type album but I was wrong. This re-recorded versions add a great deal of nuance to some of my favorite songs. Absolutely perfect to listen to with someone special over a bottle of wine. Magical. Great.

A quieter, close-up, intimate view of some great songs Suzanne Vega has written over the years. These are legitimate well-produced alternate takes. If you are a fan, you need to have this. If you are new to Vega's music, this wouldn't be a bad place to start on a Suzanne Vega collection. I can't say I favor these arrangements over the originals, but I don't like them any less, either. The title "Love Songs" is a bit deceiving though. It seems that most are on the twisted and down side of love. It would be as accurate to tag these "lack-of-love songs." It isn't a depressing album, but let's just say the mood is subdued. And Vega does write beautiful words, melodies, and chords. I felt the second half of the album was a little heavier. It sagged a bit compared to the first. So four stars, for an excellent drum-less collection of sparsely-arranged gems from Vega's repertoire.