Suzanne Vega - The Best of: Tried and True (1998)

This excellent overview of Vega's career contains all the hits and a fair sampling from each of her five albums, though Days of Open Hand receives a cold shoulder (only "Book of Dreams" represents it here), being a critical and personal failure. The CD as a whole shows that while Vega has stayed fairly consistent as a songwriter, her growth has been marked in the collaborations with various producers, from the spare, simplistic sound stages of Steve Addabbo and Lenny Kaye to the lush metallurgy of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. The collection also features that bane of fans, the exclusive track, necessitating purchasing the CD when one owns all the other material. However, these two new songs – "Book & a Cover" and "Rosemary" – are quality entries in Vega's songbook, and once again feature the production skills of Froom and Blake. ~ Ted Mills

Unavailable in the U.S.! Suzanne Vega released her debut album in the late '80s and since then, has gone from strength to strength, musically, ever since. Her skills at writing immaculate songs about life, love and the dark edges of both has endeared her to fans all over the world. This 17 track hits collection with all of the beloved singer/ songwriter's finest, including the top five smashes 'Luka' and 'Tom's Diner' (D.N.A. featuring Suzanne Vega), plus 'Left Of Center' from the Pretty In Pink soundtrack and more. A&M.