She established herself as one of her generation’s best songwriters in the 1980s, and after a bit of a hiatus following a long string of great albums, she’s back with her first album of new, original material in 11 years. Vega worked on Flying With Angels with her longtime music director and guitar player Gerry Leonard, also the album’s producer, at GB’s Juke Joint in Long Island City. They began with Vega’s lucid, inimitable folk rock sound but soon incorporated R&B, punk, prog, and rock, along with a Dylanesque number and an Irish folk ballad. “Any preconceived notion of what I thought this album was going to be went flying out the window,” Vega says of this eclectic collection. The subject matter is equally diverse, with songs addressing conflict, sickness, angels, witches, and dreams. “There’s this otherworldly element that is at odds with the real world,” Vega explains. “There are images of flying and wanting to transcend the world we’re in. There’s real life, but also, what’s beyond it? How are we surviving?”
Thursday: Suzanne Vega – Flying with Angels
