Album Review: Suzanne Vega - Lover, Beloved: Songs From An Evening With Carson McCullers

In the mid-'80s, Suzanne Vega defined herself as a sophisticated commentator on New York in folk-pop songs such as Luka and global mega hit Tom's Diner.

Lover, Beloved is an altogether different NYC album, conceptualised around Vega's play about how author and playwright Carson McCullers' troubled life was drawn to the Big Apple like a moth to a fateful bug zapper. Paired with humbled pianos and clarinets, Vega captures McCullers' optimism and unlikely literary success despite unfeasible personal tragedies leading to her death at the age of just 50, inhabiting this fascinating character with sunshine and tenderness.