Suzanne Vega's debut is one of the 80's most overlooked and underrated treasures. Remarkably assured for a debut, the almost ethereal melancholy of this album denies any real comparison; it is unfailingly unique. Opening with "Cracking", a semi-spoken word piece piercingly scored with acoustic guitar and airy synthesizer, a tone is set that is mesmerizingly maintained throughout. The tone is crystalline, and its brittle beauty is remarkable in its timelessness. There have been some who have criticized the lush production and "new age" synth work, this criticism now seems dated itself; the instrumentation is utterly true to the spirit of the music and lyrics. In "Freeze Tag" the contrast of folk guitar and synth continues, again with haunting effect. "Marlene on the Wall" is almost lighthearted (in contrast), and "Small Blue Thing" does the remarkable trick of turning self-absorbed bathos into a gorgeous elegy. The three highlights of the album (besides the chilling "Cracking") are "Some Journey", "Straight Lines" and "The Queen and the Soldier". "Some Journey" is as erotic as anything she has done, and features some great Darrell Anger violin at the end. "Straight Lines" is a smartly unsentimental tale of a woman's suicide, with lines like "She is streamlined, she is taking the shade down from the light, to see the straight lines."

Finally "The Queen and the Soldier" is a straight up folk ballad that neatly sums up the dangers of love, while being opaque enough to be adapted to anyone's pain; brilliant. Suzanne Vega, in my opinion, never again reached the pure lustre of this jewel. It is a work that deserves to be considered genius.

Suzanne Vega personified the neo-folk revival with this beautifully crafted literate album. Vega carves out a niche that she alone occupies with her hushed and stacatto singing style that recalls beat poets and confessional singer songwriters of the Leonard Cohen variety. Vega's spare guitar accompaniment jars and cajoles the listener into ruminations on self, love, loss, uncertainty, destiny. Stand outs include "Marlene on the Wall" an urgent portrait of Vega's affairs of the heart, all conducted under the ironic gaze of the poster-sized Marlene Dietrich; "Small Blue Thing" self-examination in the palm of a hand; "Some Journey" a soaring reflection on missed opportunity; "The Queen and the Soldier" a picture of willful arrogance that recalls the rich storytelling tradition of the Child ballads; "Neighborhood Girls" hipsters who are gone gone gone. Tactile and visceral images are juxtaposed in a sensual lyricism that reveals Vega as a maturing self who is reflective, protean, and open. The production values underscore the quiet intensity and overall moodiness of the album. A stunning set of songs that still inspires and moves.

I bought this the year it came out, hearing Marlene on the Wall at the great Chicago progressive rock station WXRT in Chicago. I agree on just about everything that has been said except on one major aspect: to my ears, this is not "folk" music and I would not classify her as a "folk" musician. Now I am not a professional music critic but if you listen to this particular album, it sounds almost anti-folk to me. I guess to me the genre "folk" evokes an almost country-pop music structure or formula, and this album does not evoke that. I think "folk" and I think Joan Baez, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Alison Kraus and maybe even Jewel. But this album to me is so spare, stark, clean-lined, and precise that it's almost in it's own category and I know of no other album by a male or female artist that is close to the overall feel that this album creates.

When you think of folk, you think of the stereotypical country guitar twang, the granola-esqueness, the organic-ness, and emotional sentiments being song. This album is spare, ethereal, clean, sharp, dry, psychological, abstract, and Suzanne sings almost from a more emotionally detached state, observing, commenting poetically an abstractly. Her lyrics are definitely not folk-oriented but rather modern or post-modern, psychological as opposed to emotional, and texture musically is more contructed as opposed to organic. A good example is "Freeze Tag". It's like a poetry slam, rap, jazz song with its syncopated phrasing and crystaline guitarwork. Or listen to Small Blue Thing which musically and lyrically to me is so far removed from being a "folk" song - it's got more in common with Laurie Anderson than say Sheryl Crow.

All the lushness, decorations, and ornamentation have been stripped from the "folk" and you are left with a crisp, beautifully naked, sometimes haunting, sometimes dark, sometimes catharthic, sometimes enlightened, state. Her guitarwork, vocals, pacing, and lyrics all work together to elicit that state (for me).

The small amounts of accompaniment here and there are so intentionally slight and light that they almost sound as if they're ashamed to break-up the crispness of the guitar and of Ms. Vega's vibrato-free voice.

I frankly was quite disappointed when her next work, Solutide Standing, came out. It became too pop and formulaic with too much post-production (at least compared to her debut). Now I love love love SV and I've come to love and admire her other albums of course but this debut to me is the highest and purest distillation of her artistry and soul and the one I still play over and over regularly. I love the spareness, the reliance of her voice and guitar to carry through most of the songs. 20+ years later and this work still sounds like so much like "fresh air". It transcends all the other formulaic productions that other producers and artist seems to follow to sound edgy and "modern" but eventually dates them, too. This album never ever sounded "dated" to me. It always sounds "fresh"

and clear.

I guess a funny analogy I can use is that this album is an aural, emotional, and musical "palette cleanser". I love music of all kinds and much of it is rock, pop, jazz and classical - all multi-layered, loud (usually), formulaic in many cases, and typically overly produced. When I go back to this album it brings me back down to the "basics" and while this album has teeny tiny bits of pop, rock, jazz phrasing, classical, and, yes some - GULP -FOLK(!) in it, it is added in a judicious, conscientious manner - just enough satisfy a well-rounded, music-loving ear. This is an album I would bring to a desert island. Suzanne Vega is thought of the first "modern" "folk" artist that susequently ushered in countless others woman folk guitarists afterwards but I think with this album she transcends the "folk" "rock" and "pop" labels and genres and is really to me the first modern woman musical "artist", taking the baton from the other ground-breaking "folk" artist Joni Mitchell.

This album changed my life. Something about those opening chords in Cracking with Suzanne Vega's chilly unemotional delivery just transfixed me and continue to blow me away to this day. That song along with Small Blue Things, Straight Lines, and Neighborhood Girls continue to be among the best songs I have ever heard. I am a singer songwriter and I believe that this album influenced my writing tremendously. If you have not heard this album, this is a must!

Bob Katz

This was Vega's first and perhaps her best, if judged by folk criteria. The songs have a very sparse feel, allowing the listener to enjoy the poetry that is her lyrics. Her later recordings are remarkable in their own way too...much more powerful, driven, raucous. This recording is that of the frail folk-waif in an unjust world and it's gorgeous.