Although most know Suzanne Vega for a song on this record ("Luka"), it's only one reason to add this one to your collection. _Solitude Standing_ is thoughtful, touching, elegant. From "Ironbound Fancy Poultry"'s use of chicken parts as metaphor for their sellers' dreams of freedom to the title track's quiet poetry, this is one of those rare recordings that is solid from start to finish. Highly recommended.

This CD, Suzanne Vega's second, brought her commercial success through two of its best songs. Fans who are folk purists have something bad to say about everything after her first, eponymous, recording. Most of us, however, would never have heard that first recording if not for the success of this one, and it was successful for good reason. It isn't that the warmer sound or the use of distinctive instrumentation drew in fans, though some of the experiments with new sounds here seem to foreshadow her later work with Mitchell Froom. It's that Ms. Vega's poetry - and her lyrics truly are poetry - moved from the steady cool flow of her first album to include several truly outstanding songs like "Luka", "In the Eye", "Language", "Solitude Standing", "Ironbound", and "Tom's Diner", that jump out and grab the listener emotionally. And it's interesting to be grabbed so fiercely by such a tiny soft voice uttering such powerful words.

Where the a capella "Tom's Diner" has one marveling at Vega's descriptiveness again, as well as a simple but captivating beatnik beat, "Luka" and "In the Eye" are absolutely breathtaking in their quiet intensity. Reviewers here have diverse interpretations of "In the Eye", but I hear another abusive relationship in its worst moments as she calmly sings, "If you were to kill me now right here I would still look you in the eyes. And I would burn myself into your memory as long as you were still alive. I would live inside of you, I'd make you wear me like a scar." Her poetry acquires more feeling on this album, from my perspective. "Gypsy", though not the best song here, actually has warmth to it, something new to her repertoire at the time. "Solitude Standing" and "Language" are more her usual brilliant but cool and abstract use of language, discussed and quoted ad nauseum below, but absolutely lovely. Her descriptions of the urban landscape on "Ironbound" bring back vivid memories of neighborhoods I haven't seen in 35 years.

I rarely listen to this CD anymore, taken more by the sound of "99.9Fº" or the lyrics of "Songs in Red and Gray" when I'm in a Suzanne Vega mood. But this is a cohesive consistent beautiful recording without a bad song and many a great one, even by Suzanne Vega standards. Which is to say the lyrics are magnificent, the music lovely, and that it's miles above work done by any other singer/songwriter I can think of. And it's an obvious starting point for anyone interested in her work.

On Solitude Standing, Suzanne Vega layers catchier melodies and arrangements onto her verbally adept, absorbing songs, and the result is an album that is both her commercial and artistic peak.

Who can forget the quiet but involving melodies of "Luka"? One of the perfect pop songs of the '80s, with a moving, understated lyric, shimmering guitar accents and beautiful backing vocals by Shawn Colvin, "Luka" broke Vega's career wide open and turned this into a platinum album. As good as the song is, though, the title track "Solitude Standing" is even better -- building from an unusually tough bass line, Anton Sanko's evocative keyboards and a gorgeous, poetic lyric of almost mythical power ("Solitude stands by the window..."), the song makes perfect use of Vega's cooing voice to convey the ultimate low-lit, abandoned feeling.

"In the Eye" has Vega injecting a rock beat into a simple, defiant lyric; "Tom's Diner" is, of course, her most famous song, here in its original, wry a cappella version before DNA got its hands on it; and "Ironbound/Fancy Poultry" is luscious and pregnant with imagery.

If you don't have it already, get it -- a pop-music classic whose treasures are buried abundant and deep, Solitude Standing is an essential piece of music history and, to this day, sounds fresh and up to date.

"Luka" might have been the song that made most people aware of Suzanne Vega and this album, but it was not even close to being the best song on "Solitude Standing." My money is on the title track, but you can certainly have a different favorite. Vega gets characterized as a "folk" singer, which may or may not ring true, but it does remind listeners that this is one artist where you want to pay attention to the lyrics because they are the best part of her work and unlike some of her music they reflect her efforts alone. Just read the lyrics of "In the Eye," "Calypso," "Language," or "Gypsy." But again, for me it keep coming back to the title track:

Solitude stands by the window

And she turns to me with her hand extended

Simply exquisite; and you do not need to get out the booklet to understand the words, which leads to this Final Thought: I always thought it was surprising that Vega received so much credit for brining the topic of child abuse to light with her music when Pat Benatar's "Hell is For Children" covered the same ground. But that just proves that once again with rock and roll too many just do not listen to the lyrics (remember Ronald Reagan quoting the lyrics to "Born in the U.S.A."?).

The songs on Solitude Standing have as its winning point Suzanne Vega�s soft, haunting, girlish melodic voice and acoustic guitar she plays. Yes, there are some tracks which use more instruments but she alone is the figurehead and captain of this ship, The Solitude Standing.

The �Tom�s Diner� here is an a capella portrait of her observations at the title place, be it rude waiters who only fills her coffee halfway or the woman who seems to be looking at Vega through the window but only sees her own reflection, symbolizing the insular nature of people.

This is quite an unusual song to become a single, as it deals with the POV of an abused child. but �Luka� was a hit in painting a portrait of low self-esteem, a bit shy. �I guess I like to be alone/with nothing broken, nothing thrown� he says. The two refrains are equally poignant: �You just don�t argue anymore� and �Just don�t ask me how I am.� Only Vega could do this song.

�Ironbound/Fancy Poultry� is a portrait of the city and a woman takes her child to the schoolyard before going to the market. The way the poultry parts are described seems to be an observation of how we only look at certain parts of people and not the whole: �breasts and thighs and hearts/backs are cheap/and wings are nearly free.�

The slightly more uptempo �In The Eye� is a song addressed to a would-be mugger or armed assailant. Instead of fleeing, she sings �I would live inside of you/I�d make you wear me/like a scar.� This is reminiscent of when the Doctor in Dr. Who says to a would-be gunman, �So look me in the eye, pull the trigger, end my life� to which the gunman loses his nerve. A standout cut.

�And she turns to me with her hand extended/Her palm is split with a flower with a flame.� With a pulsing bass and upbeat guitar, the title track is one of my favourite songs here, as it personifies solitude. The lyrics are sung more quickly than the other tracks and there�s a sense of haunting introversion here. �She says �I�ve come to lighten this dark heart�/And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear/And I say �I�ve never thought of finding you here.�

�Calypso� is based on the nymph who was Odysseus�s lover until he decided to leave her after years with her, and the song tells of the loneliness she�ll feel: �I have let him go/in the dawn he sails away/to be gone forever more.�

The way language can be distorted is the meaning behind the philosophical �Language�, where silence is more eloquent than any word. �I�d like to meet you in a timeless/placeless place/Somewhere out of context/and beyond all consequences,� she sings.

�Gypsy� with its poetic imagery of �coffeeshops and morning streets� is a loving acoustic number of the title character, someone from afar who spins gauzy tales. The song indicates a sad parting: �And we�ll blow away forever soon/and go on to different lands.�

The haunting �Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser�s Song)�, replete with drums and bass and Vega�s quiet voice, seems to be about the mysterious German youth who had been penned up all his life in a cabin without social contact until age 16, with a wooden horse being one of the toys he had with him. Apparently, his father was a cavalry officer. Hauser was later murdered under mysterious circumstances. The realization of the boy�s fantasies in the afterlife is seen here: �But when I�m dead/if you could tell them this/that what was wood became alive.� The album ends with an instrumental of �Tom�s Diner.�

A collection of mellow, acoustic folk which added a quieter shade of music in the 80�s. However, I couldn�t help but notice the date on some these songs, many of them before the album�s release date of 1987. �Gypsy� and �Calypso� were written in 1978, if that gives one an idea. Still, a wonderful and quiet album that one should listen to when solitude stands in the doorway and walks in the room.