Suzanne Vega

A huge maturation happened between Solitude Standing and this, Vega's third album. The orchestrations are more lush, the production has the warm polish of the '90s alt movement (read: tons of Hammond organ), and some heavy-hitting friends (such as strings arranger Philip Glass) help liven the sound. Unfortunately, the tracks here didn't have nearly as much traction as "Luka," but the album is a good demonstration of Vega's fearless creativity.

With each new album, Suzanne Vega gets stronger. Days of Open Hand is her hardest and
loveliest music yet; it is distinguished by a prayerful intensity and a clean, sharp
intelligence that announce a young artist fully come into her own. Suzanne Vega, the
singer-songwriter's 1985 debut, was all watercolor suggestiveness. Its pastel tunes
sketched out keener melodies to come, and its lyrics – about a sense of looming... More >

Right off she declares for the new realism: "Oh mom/The dreams are not so bad/It's just that there's so much to do/And I'm tired of sleeping." About time, too--only she can't take it. She's politically alienated and not too thrilled about that abortion. She throws up her hands at the future. She's decorous, tuneful, art-directed. And she gets her title, whatever it means, from the one called "Book of Dreams." (Grade: B-)