Solitude Standing

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Suzanne Vega emerged in the mid-1980s, and while her intimate voice and acoustic guitar brought to mind Joni Mitchell, her urbane lyrics suggested a sensibility that was as much reportorial as confessional. Vega's second album, which replaced the delicate acoustic textures of her self-titled debut with more dramatic arrangements, includes Vega's career song, "Luka", surely one of the biggest hits ever written about child abuse. But it was the energetic folk-rock production of "Luka", thick with ringing guitars and pushed by perky drums, that let the listener luxuriate in a song that suggested the darkness that can lurk behind a neighbour's door. The title tune confronts personal loneliness with a similarly powerful performance, while "Ironbound / Fancy Poultry" makes a downtown landscape sound downright homey. Well-turned tunes like "Calypso" and "Gypsy" recall the softer textures of her debut. Ironically, Vega's next big hit would come when the production duo DNA made a dance hit out of "Tom's Diner", a nursery-rhyme tribute to a coffee shop that opens the album. --John Milward

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Customer reviews

review by: The_biggest_bookworm date: 2008-03-05 rating:
Amazing lyrics
I love Suzanne Vega - she is probably remembered by her more famous tracks, Luka and Tom's Diner, but her album provides us with a wealth of beautiful, meaningful lyrics and her striking and soulful voice. My favourites tracks are Fancy Poultry/ Ironbound and Language, with beautiful lyrics such as 'if language were liquid, it would be rushing in, instead here we are in a silence more eloquent than any words could ever be'. Lovely album.

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review by: date: 2006-10-07 rating:
Beautiful, timeless and totally under-rated classic...
Over her 20 year career Suzanne Vega has produced a great deal of music that's as good as or better than any of her more famous singer/songwriter peers, with the difference that she's prepared to push things out to the edge lyrically without losing sight of the fact that what makes a song work is a great tune, an exciting, carefully executed arrangement and... sincere delivery. And, when she gets it right, as she does here, the results are quite stunning.

Stand-out tracks such as "Luka", "Solitude Standing" & "In the Eye" suck you in with their exhilarating, wonderfully catchy rock melodies until you listen again to their perfectly metered lyrics and realise that what she's talking about is something far darker and deeper than their melodies suggest. And when she steps back into the more folk based style that this type of rock-poetry is usually found - areas that artists like Joni Mitchell & Leonard Cohen pioneered - their unusual and above all superbly atmospheric arrangements turn them into something very different and very special. Perfect examples of how to make songs genuinely thoughtful and almost ecstatically enjoyable at the same time.

The result? A beautiful, timeless and unforgettable album that anyone who is into "good music" should have in their collection.

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review by: yellow_mongoose date: 2001-07-28 rating:
a stunning astute follow up
A clever, handsome and astute follow up to her previous album. There are problems, but suzanne vega being suzanne vega, these are minor, or forgivable ones.

Full of grace, dignity and intrigue, this cd is one to buy. It may not be perfect but it has a deliberate and interesting charm.


review by: date: 2000-09-19 rating:
That difficult second album
Following her debut hit, Suzanne Vega the lady in question drifted slightly from her gentle folky sound to produce an album with a rockier edge. The lyrical content of the album remained on a par with the first but perhaps the melody wasn't quite so strong second time around. The album opens with the acapella "Toms Diner" (later to be pillaged by an anonymous one-hit-wonder dance band)and the gets going with "Luka" - a bouncy little number about child abuse of all things... "Ironbound", "In the Eye" and the title track all keep the quality high but tracks like "Gypsy" sound like something that didn't quite make the grade for her first release and was pulled into service to make the track count on the second. This is a good album, its just not a great album. Vega fans should have it already and any lover of female vocalists a la Joni Mitchell or Shawn Colvin will welcome this into their collection.

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