Beauty & Crime

Beauty & Crime is the seventh studio album release by New York-based singer/songwriter and musician Suzanne Vega. It is her first album of new material since 2001's Songs in Red and Gray and is also her first for Blue Note Records. It was released on July 17, 2007. Beauty & Crime won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, on February 11, 2008.

Development

Following lukewarm commercial success for her last two albums, 1996's Nine Objects of Desire and Songs in Red and Gray, A&M Records ended their lengthy contract with Vega (she had signed in 1983) with the release of the more commercially successful hits package Retrospective in 2003.

Between then and 2006, Vega embarked on a hectic and extensive touring schedule and performed a number of the songs from Beauty & Crime, in their early forms, during concerts, including "Unbound," "(Edith Wharton's) Figurines," and "New York is a Woman."

The album was recorded in New York City between November 10-November 27, 2006, with further recording work commencing in England in January 2007.

Track listing

1. "Zephyr & I"
2. "Ludlow Street"
3. "New York Is a Woman"
4. "Pornographer's Dream"
5. "Frank & Ava
6. "Edith Wharton's Figurines"
7. "Bound"
8. "Unbound"
9. "As You Are Now"
10. "Angel's Doorway"
11. "Anniversary"

Personnel

• Suzanne Vega - guitar, vocals
• Mike Visceglia - bass
• Dougie Yowell - drums
• Gerry Leonard - guitar
• Graham Hawthorne - drums
• Tony Shanahan - bass
• Sam Dixon - bass
• Martin Slattery - piano, flute, reeds
• Lee Ranaldo - guitar
• Jimmy Hogarth - percussion
• Philip Shepard - cello
• Matthew Ward - violin
• KT Tunstall - background vocals, vocal arrangements
• Ruby Froom - background vocals
• London Studio Orchestra - strings
• Jimmy Hogarth - producer
• Emery Dobyns - engineer

Notes

Vega has made the following comments on the album's songs:

• Zephyr & I: a conversation between the graffiti artist Zephyr and myself, West End Avenue remembered
• Ludlow Street: for my brother Tim who lived there, memories of parties and rehab
• New York is a Woman: NY personified as a woman who has had a hard time but is still beautiful
• Pornographer’s Dream: what would he really desire?
• Frank & Ava: a couple who gets along in bed but not out
• Figurines: women past and present, how we suffer for beauty
• Bound: a love song to my husband
• Unbound: a spiritual song about a plant
• As You Are Now: to my daughter who is a natural treasure
• Angel’s Doorway: A cop is stationed at Ground Zero and his wife wants him to leave his clothes at the door. Also about troops returning home.
• Anniversary: The anniversary week of 9/11 a year later in NYC
• Obvious Question: about alcohol and the damage done (this track is only available on the Japanese import CD)

Charts

Album

Chart (2007)	Peak Position
The Billboard 200 (U.S.)	129
Top Internet Albums (U.S.)	24
Billboard Comprehensive Albums (U.S.)	140
United Kingdom	127
Czech Republic	37
Estonia	9
Finland	13
France	52
Germany	81
Italy	74
Poland	49
Switzerland	79