This is my favorite Suzanne Vega album. I'm puzzled that most of her fans feel differently.

I wasn't as fond of the quirky, edgy Mitchell Froom production on the next two albums... I really enjoyed this one much more, the spaciousness and shadow, the sense of underwater floating or otherwordly journeying that moves through songs like "Those Whole Girls," "Big Space" and "Rusted Pipe." Suzanne and her keyboardist Anton Sanko produced a rich and poetic trail of songs here.

A song I especially love on this CD is "Predictions", which features slow guitar, echoey synth, and percussive rhythm over which Suzanne recites, as a poem, many ways to tell the future. The song offers no actual predictions... it only beckons you to feel that universal desire for omniscience, the urge to visit the altar, to roll dice, reveal cards.

The top 40 single, "Book of Dreams", was more poppy and neatly upbeat than the rest of the disc. I recall reading an interview with Suzanne when this album came out, and she mentioned listening to XTC's "Oranges and Lemons." I hear their influence in this track. This may have misled and disappointed buyers at the time; the single wasn't as compelling as "Luka," and much of the rest of the CD was veiled in ambiguities.

The closing track "Pilgrimage" is simply gorgeous. It builds to become almost anthemic, a sure path, a promise: "I'm coming to you, I'll be there in time..." which I've come to imagine as an arc back around like outstretched arms to the tired, fever-dreaming girl who began the disc with an imploring waltz, "Oh, mom... I wonder when I will be waking... there's so much to do, and i'm tired of sleeping." Beautiful.

In a mad search for a song called "Left of Center", I bought all of Suzanne Vega's albums. By the time I found out "Left of Center" was on the "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack, I'd fallen in love with Suzanne's music. Instead of being with the rest of her albums, I found this album, "Days of Open Hand", in the three tapes for $10 bin. I found that very shocking as I listened to it, especially when I listened to the latter half of the songs (from "Those Whole Girls (Run in Grace)" to "Pilgrimage"). Extremely creative are the only words I could think of to describe it since it lacks a proper pigeonhole or genre titile. I'd call it "Night Music" myself. In fact, now that I think of it, the order in which the songs were placed on the album seem to give a Day into Night feel as "Institution Green" sort of bleeds into the latter half of the album like the sun setting on one horizon while the moon rises over the other. Do yourself a favor and buy this album if you buy any of hers. While you're at it, check out the songs "Solitude Standing" and "Wooden Horse" on the "Solitude Standing" album; so good that authors John Skipp and Craig Spector used them as a musical backdrop to their book, "Deadlines".

Days of Open Hand is the one Suzanne Vega album that bewildered and challenged me the most. Stripping her music of most of the rock/pop trimmings that made Solitude Standing such a pure pleasure, Days of Open Hand instead offers up Vega's most mature lyrics yet, an extraordinarily quiet overall mood, and sombre arrangements best described by lead track "Tired of Sleeping". The vocals are beautiful as usual, confident and understated, but all of it is recorded with such a careful restraint that sometimes I wish there could be a little more rhythmic variety.

Nevertheless, this was the last of '80s-style Suzanne Vega that we'll ever hear.

This is one of those rare works that would rate 6 stars if it were possible. "Haunting" probably best describes the tone of this album. Soulful and chilling, the echoing sounds of songs like "Those Whole Girls" and "Big Space" combine with deep, disturbing messages in tracks such as "Tired of Sleeping" and "Fifty-Fifty Chance" to create a masterful work. After more than ten years of listening to this album, I'm still discovering layers of meaning hidden in the lyrics. This is one to put on the headphones and listen to over and over again.

Suzanne Vega is an intelligent and bewitching songstress. Her lyrics are partially literate and intelligible, partially symbolic and, at times, completely cryptic. Days Of Open Hand opens with a dreamy lullaby `Tired Of Sleeping.' The composition is a cute sing-along, except for lines such as "Oh Mom, the bird on the string is hanging/Her bones are twisting and dancing/She's fighting for her small life." Musically, `Men In A War' is a bouncing dance tempo tune. Although the music is playful, the lyrics are daunting: "Men in a war/If they've lost a limb/Still feel that limb/As they did before." `Book Of Dreams' prances joyfully along with Byrds-like sparkling guitars. Vega changes the albums mid-tempo pace with track six (Those Whole Girls). Her delivery is spellbinding: she sing-speaks the lyrics one word at a time with a short pause after each word. The effect is haunting. My favorite composition is `Fifty-Fifty Chance' with its staccato strings and a lonesome violin in the background. Like the work of Jane Siberry and Kate Bush, Days Of Open Hand is a challenging album of enchanting music and somber poetry. Vega is an innovator, gifted composer and lyricist.