There are some artists who make a career of changing their musical styles between albums. They took risks to remain artistically relevant or just because they don’t want to repeat themselves. David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Wilco, The Beatles, John Cale, XTC are all examples…..a ton of others could be nominated.
Let’s talk about Suzanne Vega.
Welcome
to episode 170 of Love That Album podcast.
From the mid-80s, Suzanne
Vega had recorded some great records featuring songs that sounded
like a mix of old school folk and polished pop. She wrote songs of
domestic abuse, changes in her personal life, love lost, and her
favourite coffee shop in NYC. Then after the unexpected success of a
couple of producers remixing her “coffee shop” song, “Tom’s
Diner”, she wanted to explore other options to how her recorded
music would sound.
She chose the exciting producer of the moment, Mitchell Froom, to help her record something that would sound different to previous albums, and the result was “99.9F” released in 1992. Her personal style of songwriting hadn’t altered, but it’s the arrangements and the production that make this album sound a world away from the debut eponymous album released just a few years earlier.
I’m joined by two new guests to discuss this album and a bunch of peripheral subjects. First up is Eric Senich, host of the terrific Booked On Rock podcast – dedicated to the discussion of music books with authors. I’m also joined by the wonderful author, Lisa Torem, who has released 3 books in the On Track series of books – the latest one being on the discography of Suzanne Vega. Together, we look through the themes of 99.9F, how it changed from the sound of her earlier records, determining if the art is in the songwriting or the recording, and whether one temperature scale is more erotic than another.
My gratitude to Lisa and Eric for being such wonderful guests, and look forward to having them on the show again.
You can go through Eric’s podcast back catalogue at https://www.bookedonrock.com/ or you can subscribe on all the usual podcast platforms – perfect for deciding what your next music book should be.
You
can pick up a copy of any of Lisa’s On Track books in which she
analyses the songcraft of the discography of Billy Joel, Tori Amos,
and Suzanne Vega from either Amazon or at
https://burningshed.com/index.php?route=product/search&filter_name=lisa%20torem&filter_sub_category=true
She’s working on a website which is not quite active yet, but keep
checking at lisatorem.com
Download
this episode of LTA from your podcast app of choice. The wider back
catalogue of episodes can also be found
at http://lovethatalbumpodcast.blogspot.com
Love
That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to
http://pantheonpodcasts.com
to check out all their great shows.
You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum I'm also on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lovethatalbumpodcast/
Proudly
Pantheon.
You can download episode 170 from here.
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