Warm up for the show with our five-song trip down musical memory lane.

It’s T minus three hours to the Suzanne Vega show, and we’re waving our tickets around the office. And it’s still not too late to get yours. We were just on the Sistic website, and there are still a few seats left for the show tonight, which will be held at the cozy, 250-seater Esplanade Recital Hall—the best way to experience the intimate, slightly corny and always gut-wrenching songs of the contemporary-folk songwriter.

Sure, she’s not Lady Gaga or an indie, lo-fi band, but her sultry voice and completely un-ironic storytelling have earned her a loyal fan following since the 80s. Plus, she's just put out her first album in seven years, Tales From the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles.

Still on the fence about shelling the $148 (plus $3 service fee)? Relive some of her old hits with us while we warm up for the show tonight:

 

Marlene on the Wall (1985)

Vega’s self-titled debut album was on Rolling Stone’s  “100 Best Albums of the Eighties” and in many ways, she has held fast to her formula of simple arrangements and emotional lyrics in the decades since.

 

Luka (1987)

Perhaps Vega’s most well-known single, the upbeat arrangements against the dark story about a secretive child experiencing domestic violence gives us the chills.

 

Solitude Standing (1987)

The title track to her best-selling album is also her most intensely metaphorical. The restrained melody, the personification of solitude and the whispering vocals are great for sulky walks home in the rain.

 

Stockings  (1996)

Vega’s not all doom, gloom and existential angst. Her fifth studio album Nine Objects of Desire showed that she could be downright sexy. This coquettish song about friendship turning into sex made us blush in the 90s, and it still does.

 

Zephyr & I (2007)

After a long hiatus following 9/11 and the death of her brother, Vega returned with her seventh studio album, Beauty & Crime, a tribute to New York City. We love the first track off this album, a happy, nostalgic tune about growing up in the city and looking back on it as adults.

 

 

 

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