★★★★★
Lyrics are usually the last thing to draw me in to a song, so it is telling that while I might struggle to recall in detail particular arrangements on Suzanne Vega's albums, I can sing along to most of her songs. It's not that the instrumentation isn't interesting, but rather that it always takes backstage, serving her singing with economy and pith, this singing that mesmerises like the expanse of a cloudless Texan sky...
- thequietus.com
2014-03-12
★★★★★
Song Premiere: Suzanne Vega, "Crack In The Wall" The sonic territory covered and the complex emotions conveyed are impressive considering "Song of the Stoic" is just a shade over four minutes. And yet Vega achieves this again and again on the album. The overall effect is novelistic - verses, choruses, bridges unfold like satisfyingly detailed chapters...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2014-02-18
★★★★★
Suzanne Vega's first studio record in seven years is a marvel of intelligent lyrics and folkish experimental textures. Vega's background as a literature major shows as she digs deep into mythological lore -- the album title refers to a Tarot card figure, as do songs from the gentle, guitar-looped "Portrait of the Knight of Wands" to the shimmering folk-pop of "Fool's Complaint," where Vega says she identifies more with the madcap Fool than with the Queen and her "domestic tyranny...
- www.bostonglobe.com
2014-03-05
★★★★★
Suzanne Vega's first studio record in seven years is a marvel of intelligent lyrics and folkish experimental textures. Vega's background as a literature major shows as she digs deep into mythological lore -- the album title refers to a Tarot card figure, as do songs from the gentle, guitar-looped "Portrait of the Knight of Wands" to the shimmering folk-pop of "Fool's Complaint," where Vega says she identifies more with the madcap Fool than with the Queen and her "domestic tyranny...
- www.bostonglobe.com
2014-02-28
★★★★★
Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles was written before Reed's death but there is such a maudlin feel that you wonder whether his illness head already impacted Vega's thinking. On Silver Bridge she even sings of the "recently departed....into that land uncharted". There are even echoes of Reed's raw 70s sound on I Never Wear White's edgy guitar - as Vega declares "My colour is black.....black is for secrets....the poet of the dark"...
- www.music-news.com
2014-02-14
★★★★★
Whatever made Vega spend her last four years re-recording her own back catalogue as four themed albums - like someone re-filing their CDs from alphabetical into 'feel' - it seems to have unblocked whatever was preventing her from releasing new material. And to celebrate, here is the folky singer-songwriter in totally new guise: Suzanne Vega, Rock Chick. Well, not quite, but in a career more noted for hushed moments it's still a surprise to hear electric guitars played in anger...
- www.mojo4music.com
2014-02-03
★★★★★
Buy it from Buy the CDSuzanne VegaTales From The Realm Of The Queen Of PentaclesCooking Vinyl2014 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album A dissonance between sound and...
- www.theguardian.com
2014-02-02
★★★★★
Vega's last four albums, released under the collective Close-Up banner, found her revisiting past glories in largely intimate acoustic settings. Her first set of new songs in seven years also nods to what went before, staying true to the half-whispered, poetic sensibilities of her best work.
- recordcollectormag.com
2014-01-30
★★★★★
Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles? A song title called Portrait Of The Knight Of Wands? A sample of 50 Cent's Candy Shop? Has quintessential New York singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega decided to go quite mad and embark on a brave new direction combining prog rock and rap?
The answer is, thankfully, no. It's been a good seven years since her last album of original material, Beauty & Crime, was released, and it did seem for a while as if she was content to just live off her glory days...
- www.musicomh.com
2014-02-07
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