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Song Title Time Price Visit our audio page for more information Import pressing of her 1992 album that is out-of-print domestically. Suzanne Vega makes it clear from the cover inwards that she's up to something different on 99.9 F. Her fiery red and yellow photo-manipulated hair and bandaged finger stand in stark contrast to the orderly mysticism conveyed on the front of her previous release, DAYS OF OPEN HAND. Producer MitchellFroom surrounds her strong songs with surprises in instrumentation, arrangement, and mix. The set opens smartly with a couple of selections that stand in stark contrast to the more traditional folk bearing of her previous output. By the third song, "In Liverpool", things break open to reveal a lushand popish heart. The title song is a dazzling groove of fuzzy and staccato guitar chords cast over layered percussion and her lilting vocal. An array of superb players, includingdrummer Jerry Marotta, guitarists David Hidalgo and RichardThompson, and bass player Bruce Thomas accompany her. While it represented a bit of an unexpected turn at the time of its release in 1992, 99.9 F is one of Vega's finest albums. Universal. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition. Machine-driven music was not Suzanne Vega's most enticing musical direction, though the experimentation certainly yielded some pronounced successes and destroyed the notion that Vega was just a guitar-strumming folkie. The often cacophonous arrangements at times intrude: Vega's voice and delivery are ill-equipped to compete with overloud drum machines and bass guitars. "Blood Makes Noise" has an exhilirating sound, but her heavily processed vocals are a take-it-or-leave-it affair, and her singing sounds very strained (hear her struggling for breath when she hits "I'd like to give the information you're asking for"). "In Liverpool", however, achieves a wonderful balance between 99.9 F-era Vega and Solitude Standing-era Vega, a song of great spiritual, melodic and lyrical clarity, recorded with the same industrial/dance leanings used throughout the album, but remaining human enough that Vega shines through. Not a misstep, but a tangential exploration that would result in the harmonious folk/jazz/keyboard hybrid on Nine Objects of Desire. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)

99.9 F° Available from Amazon Price: $0.25 Updated on 9-8-2008.