Suzanne Vega
Close - Up Vol. 1 Love Songs

THE REVIEW

For someone like me, who rarely lets go completely, who too often gets lost in the complex mazes of my mind, who plays hide and seek to never reveal the most fragile and insecure parts I keep inside, music seems to be the only outlet capable of bringing out my most hidden feelings, the only one able to tell about me without the need for words. There are albums, indeed, that seem to be a reflection of my convoluted personality, and it is for this reason that they leave deep marks inside, to cling to in moments of difficulty...In this case, well, I believe it was she who found me. The anti-diva by choice—shy, reserved. A subtle, warm, gentle voice, sometimes sweetly whispered, that, with the help of simple acoustic guitars, some hints of electric guitar, and sporadic bossanova chords, managed to re-create pure and simple magic.

"Close - Up Vol. 1 Love Songs" is the first of four volumes of the new completely acoustic project by the American folksinger Suzanne Vega, finally returning to the spotlight after the lackluster success of her last album dated 2007, "Beauty and Crime". The singer-songwriter has thus drawn, from her vast discography, 16 intense tracks with a romantic and melancholic taste, which she has reinterpreted in much more intimate and understated atmospheres, aided by her always so absent-mindedly disenchanted and personal air. What better album to describe a part of me?? The main theme of the collection is certainly love, but it is tackled in all its forms, in all its heartbreaking complexity. And it is the opening track of this "return to origins" that gives the first glimpse of solitude: in her "Small Blue Thing", Suzanne unveils one of her most poignant confessions. "Today I feel like a small sad thing/ like marble/ like an eye/...I am lost inside your pocket/ I am lost against your fingers". This severe sense of loss is palpably felt in the splendid "Harbor Song", while in the British folk version of "Songs In Red And Grey", one can find the opposing extremes of this feeling: red as instinct, madness, passion, grey as matured rationality. The sweet "Caramel" is surely to be savored slowly, or one can let themselves be gently cradled by the notes of "Gypsy", while the absolute primacy is held by "Marlene On The Wall", a version which proves to be much more fitting than the original.

The emotions are alive, intense, disarming. And for me, an incurable dreamer, I couldn't have asked for anything better. An album that can be pleasantly listened to again and again, without pretenses. A special thanks to the person who introduced it to me...