Suzanne Vega returns with her first original album in seven years, inspired with the body and how it interacts with the world. The album has a spiritual earthy feels seeping through every song.
There is a lot of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan vibes in this New Yorkers album but the biggest surprise is over her decision to sample the 50 Cent hit song Candy Shop on Don’t Uncork What You Can’t Contain (A mostly folk inspired song with Arabian tinges).
The mix of her distinctive voice poetic lyrics (these stand out on lead single ‘Fools Complaint’ and ‘I Never Wear White’) and mesh of cultures (she teams up with the Smikov Chamber Orchestra from the Czech in Horizon (A Road Beyond This One)) as well as Arabian undertones make this a crackling-ly electric comeback.
With ‘folk’ very much in vogue, and Laura Marling, Mumford and Sons and Passenger all now huge International stars, the album is brilliantly timed and Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles is a simple, yet charming folk-rock album with a reliably Greenwich Village sound.
Here’s hoping we got another new album for Vega before 2021.
Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles is released 3rd February