''Beauty & Crime'' is the seventh studio album by singer-songwriter

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter of Folk music, folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans 40 years. In the mid-1980s and 1990s she released four singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the ...

. It is her first album of new material since 2001's '' Songs in Red and Gray'' and her first for

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by History of the Jews in Germany, German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it deriv ...

. It was released on July 17, 2007. ''Beauty & Crime'' won the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as th ...

, on February 11, 2008. It was dedicated to

Tim Vega Tim Vega (born Timothy Martin Vega; September 14, 1965 – April 29, 2002) was an American graphic designer best known for his work with several musical acts, especially jam bands. Among his patrons were Blues Traveler, Gov't Mule, and Spin Docto ...

, Suzanne's younger half-brother who had died in 2002.

Development

After lukewarm commercial success for her last two albums, ''

Nine Objects of Desire ''Nine Objects of Desire'' is the fifth studio album by American musician Suzanne Vega, released on September 10, 1996, through A&M Records. As with her previous album (1992), it was produced by her then-husband Mitchell Froom (who also co-wrote ...

'' (1996) and '' Songs in Red and Gray'' (2001)

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

ended their contract with Vega with the release of the more commercially successful hits package ''

Retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

'' in 2003. Vega embarked on an extensive tour and performed songs from ''Beauty & Crime'' in their early forms, including "Unbound", "Edith Wharton's Figurines", and "New York Is a Woman". The album was recorded in New York City from November 10–27, 2006, with additional recording in England in January 2007.

Track listing

All tracks written by

. # "Zephyr & I" – 3:10 # "Ludlow Street" – 3:16 # "New York Is a Woman" – 2:54 # "Pornographer's Dream" – 3:23 # " Frank & Ava" – 2:38 # "

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

's Figurines" – 2:23 # "Bound" – 4:43 # "Unbound" – 3:34 # "As You Are Now" – 2:20 # "Angel's Doorway" – 2:55 # "Anniversary" – 2:57 :Bonus track (Japanese edition) #

"Obvious Question" – 1:50

Personnel

* Suzanne Vega – acoustic guitar, vocals (all tracks) *

Gerry Leonard Gerry Leonard (born 26 February 1962) is an Irish guitarist known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style and for his work with David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, Duncan Sheik and many others. He has a solo projec ...

– electric guitar (1, 2, 5 to 11), acoustic guitar (4, 5, 10) *

Lee Ranaldo Lee Mark Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" li ...

– electric guitar (1, 2, 10) * Martin Slattery – piano (3, 4, 7, 10), flute (9), brass (3), reeds (3) *

Samuel Dixon Samuel Dixon (born 1973, Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian record producer, songwriter and musician, based in London. Dixon has produced and written with artists including Adele, Sia, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera, Paloma Faith ...

– bass (2, 3, 6, 11) live bass (8) *

Tony Shanahan Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album ''Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fus ...

– bass (1, 5, 9, 10) * Mike Visceglia – bass (4) * Graham Hawthorne – drums (1, 3, 5, 6, 9 to 11), live drums (2, 7, 8) *

Jimmy Hogarth James Dearness Hogarth (born September 1974) is a London-based producer and songwriter, whose production and writing credits include, Anohni, Amy Winehouse, Sia, Tom Grennan, Paolo Nutini, Duffy, Corinne Bailey Rae, Ren Harvieu, Estelle, T ...

– percussion (1 to 5, 10, 11) electric guitar (1), acoustic guitar (11) * Doug Yowell – drums (4, 6), percussion (4, 6) *

KT Tunstall Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall (born 23 June 1975) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained attention with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on ''Later... with Jools Holland'', and h ...

– background vocals, vocal arrangements (1, 5) * Ruby Froom – background vocals (2, 8) * Beccy Byrne – background vocals (8) * Emily Singer – background vocals (8) * Anthony Genn – background vocals (11) * Philip Sheppard – cello (1, 6, 7) * Matthew Ward – violin (1, 7) * London Studio Orchestra – strings (2, 4, 7, 9) led by Perry Montague–Mason * Pete Davis – programming (2, 4, 7, 8, 10) Production * Jimmy Hogarth – producer * Cameron Craig – engineer *

Emery Dobyns Emery Dobyns is an American recording engineer, record producer, and songwriter, formerly based in Manhattan in New York City, but now based in Nashville. Dobyns won a Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, Grammy Award for engineering ''Beauty & C ...

– engineer *

Tchad Blake Tchad Blake (born 1955) is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixer and musician. A native of Baytown, Texas, he has worked with artists and musicians including Al Green, American Music Club, Ani DiFranco, Apartment 26, Arctic Monke ...

– mixing engineer *

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– mastering engineer

Notes

Vega wrote following comments on the album's songs: * "Zephyr & I": a conversation between the graffiti artist Zephyr and myself, West End Avenue remembered * "Ludlow Street": for my brother Tim who lived there, memories of parties and rehab * "New York is a Woman": New York personified as a woman who has had a hard time but is still beautiful * "Pornographer's Dream": what would he really desire? * "Frank & Ava": a couple who gets along in bed but not out * "Edith Wharton's Figurines": women past and present, how we suffer for beauty * "Bound": a love song to my husband * "Unbound": a spiritual song about a plant * "As You Are Now": to my daughter, who is a natural treasure * "Angel's Doorway": A cop is stationed at Ground Zero and his wife wants him to leave his clothes at the door. Also about troops returning home. * "Anniversary": The anniversary week of 9/11 a year later in New York City * "Obvious Question": about alcohol and the damage done (this track is only available on the Japanese import CD)

Charts

References