SUZANNE VEGA & DUNCAN SHEIK

In the 80's Suzanne created an international sensation with her poetic stories and exquisite melody in her hit songs, Marlene on the Wall, Luka, and Tom's Diner, opening doors for Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan and others. With seven studio albums, a GRAMMY Award, and three additional nominations to her credit, Suzanne's latest recording, Beauty & Crime is a love letter to her hometown of New York City and was hailed as original, gritty and gorgeous as ever by Newsweek and" ..lovely and literate" by People Magazine. Suzanne Vega is so much more than her music. She hosted a public radio series about 20th Century American Composers called American Mavericks which won a Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, wrote The Passionate Eye, a book of poems and essays, and currently blogs for the New York Times.

After breaking through in the late 90s with his Top 20 single Barely Breathing, Duncan Sheik spent much of the subsequent decade taking a breather from the usual rock singer/songwriter rituals. His focus was on albums that broke with pop music conventions and, additionally, theatrical musicals like Spring Awakening, the Broadway sensation that won him 2 Tony Awards and a Grammy. As he explains this lengthy diversion now: After a while you get boring to everyone else, but you get really bored with yourself. There was a moment where I was much more interested in these kind of longer narrative arcs, and being able to sing from the perspective of somebody else's persona, as opposed to Duncan Sheik's.

His new album splits the difference. Sheik makes his long awaited return to singing stand alone pop songs, but he hasn't given up his recent habit of inhabiting characters. In this case, though, the characters are Morrissey, Robert Smith, Martin Gore, and David Sylvian. Duncan Sheik Covers 80s features twelve of his highly personalized takes on the synth-pop era, including smashes and obscurities from the likes of the Cure, New Order, Tears for Fears, the Smthe Thompson Twins, Love & Rockets, Howard Jones, Ja Nile.