Love That Album Episode 170 - Suzanne Vega "99.9F"

There are some artists who make a career of changing their musical styles between albums. They took risks to remain artistically relevant or just because they don’t want to repeat themselves. David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Wilco, The Beatles, John Cale, XTC are all examples…..a ton of others could be nominated.

Let’s talk about Suzanne Vega.

Welcome to episode 170 of Love That Album podcast. From the mid-80s, Suzanne Vega had recorded some great records featuring songs that sounded like a mix of old school folk and polished pop. She wrote songs of domestic abuse, changes in her personal life, love lost, and her favourite coffee shop in NYC. Then after the unexpected success of a couple of producers remixing her “coffee shop” song, “Tom’s Diner”, she wanted to explore other options to how her recorded music would sound.

She chose the exciting producer of the moment, Mitchell Froom, to help her record something that would sound different to previous albums, and the result was “99.9F” released in 1992. Her personal style of songwriting hadn’t altered, but it’s the arrangements and the production that make this album sound a world away from the debut eponymous album released just a few years earlier.

I’m joined by two new guests to discuss this album and a bunch of peripheral subjects. First up is Eric Senich, host of the terrific Booked On Rock podcast – dedicated to the discussion of music books with authors. I’m also joined by the wonderful author, Lisa Torem, who has released 3 books in the On Track series of books – the latest one being on the discography of Suzanne Vega. Together, we look through the themes of 99.9F, how it changed from the sound of her earlier records, determining if the art is in the songwriting or the recording, and whether one temperature scale is more erotic than another.

My gratitude to Lisa and Eric for being such wonderful guests, and look forward to having them on the show again.

You can go through Eric’s podcast back catalogue at https://www.bookedonrock.com/ or you can subscribe on all the usual podcast platforms – perfect for deciding what your next music book should be.

You can pick up a copy of any of Lisa’s On Track books in which she analyses the songcraft of the discography of Billy Joel, Tori Amos, and Suzanne Vega from either Amazon or at https://burningshed.com/index.php?route=product/search&filter_name=lisa%20torem&filter_sub_category=true She’s working on a website which is not quite active yet, but keep checking at lisatorem.com

Download this episode of LTA from your podcast app of choice. The wider back catalogue of episodes can also be found at http://lovethatalbumpodcast.blogspot.com

Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows.

You can send me feedback at [email protected] (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum I'm also on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lovethatalbumpodcast/

Proudly Pantheon.

You can download episode 170 from here.

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