You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.
99.9F is a great album, but it’s not a typical Suzanne Vega album. Her signature acoustic guitar-driven approach comes with harder, rougher edges here with tinges of industrial rock and grunge. Which is why “Song Of Sand”, the album closer, is so significant. It’s all acoustic, a reminder and a return to form in terms of the songwriting and instrumentation found on albums like Solitude Standing.
Those dissected minor chords in “Song Of Sand” are highly reminiscent of older Suzanne Vega songs like “Night Vision” and “Language”. Genres come and go, including grunge. But this track is a stalwart signal to the fans. You can create different styles and sounds. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the songwriting – the way in which the words combine with the melodies to create something memorable and timeless. This is the strength of “Song Of Sand” and of Suzanne Vega’s overall body of work.
“If sand waves were sound waves, What song would be in the air now?”