BEAUTY & CRIME - SUZANNE VEGA
If “Beauty & Crime,” Suzanne Vega’s love letter to New York, was a tourist publication, it would be a pamphlet you’d refer to regularly. At 34 minutes, it’s a compact set of observations, anecdotes and sentimental reminiscences. It’s trim rather than hurried, does not waste a note and, because of that, may be the best of Vega’s seven studio albums. She’s seldom sounded more buoyant than she does on the opening “Zephyr & I” or as unself-consciously rocking as she does on “Frank & Ava,” with KT Tunstall adding backing vocals to both. The aptly titled “Unbound” blends midtown dance club with Greenwich Village coffee shop, while horns lend a jazzy touch to “New York Is a Woman.” Vega is hardly the first performer to mine Manhattan for thematic inspiration, but she’s managed to make more out of it than most.
