''Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles'' is the eighth studio album by the American singer-songwriter

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...

. Released in February 2014, it was Vega's first album of new material in seven years. The album features contributions from

Larry Campbell Larry W. Campbell (born 28 February 1948) is a Canadian politician that served as the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada from 2002 until 2005 and since 2005 has been a member of the Senate of Canada. Before he was mayor, Campbell worked for th ...

and

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 198 ...

(bassist from

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

and for

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

). Although Vega's music had been

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

by various artists in the past, the album contains Vega's first own attempt at sampling with the track "Don't Uncork What You Can't Contain" including interpolations from

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

's 2005 song "

Candy Shop "Candy Shop" is the second single by rapper 50 Cent from his second commercial album, ''The Massacre'' (2005). It features Olivia (singer), Olivia and was written by 50 Cent. "Candy Shop" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billbo ...

". The album entered the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

at No. 37, the first time one of Vega's studio albums reached the UK Top 40 since 1992. It received generally favorable reviews. The album appeared under Vega's own label, Amanuensis Productions, and was distributed by

Cooking Vinyl Cooking Vinyl is a British independent record label, based in Acton, London, England, founded in 1986 by former manager and booking agent Martin Goldschmidt and business partner Pete Lawrence. Goldschmidt remains the current owner and chairman ...

. In 2014 the album was awarded a silver certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

, which indicated sales of at least 20,000 copies throughout Europe.

Recording

Over the past number of years, Vega had collected "recordings with melodies, lyrics, notes and pieces of ideas" for songs on her iPhone. Together with long-time collaborator

Gerry Leonard Gerry Leonard is an Irish lead guitarist and solo artist, known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style and for his work with David Bowie. He has lived and worked in Dublin, Copenhagen, and Manhattan. Hinterland From Clontarf, Dublin, Clont ...

she began to 'solidify these ideas' over the course of a year. After road-testing a number of these songs on tour, the duo began the recording of the new material. Leonard gathered a number of musicians and began live-tracking at the Clubhouse Studios in upstate New York. Additional material was recorded at his home-studio, a converted railway station outside

Rochester (NY) Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in ...

. Leonard also oversaw the arrangement of the string section and the trumpet contribution made by

Alison Balsom Alison Louise Balsom, Lady Mendes, (born 7 October 1978) is an English trumpet soloist, arranger, producer, and music educator. Balsom was awarded Artist of the Year at the 2013 Gramophone Awards and has won three Classic BRIT Awards and thre ...

. "Song of the Stoic" was a follow-up to Vega's 1987 hit single "

Luka Luka may refer to: People * Luka (given name), a South Slavic masculine given name cognate of Luke, and a Japanese given name * Luka (singer), stage name of Brazilian singer and songwriter Luciana Karina Santos de Lima (born 1979) * Luka Keʻelik ...

", and was written from the point of view of the character as he looked back on his life.

Track listing

Personnel

* Suzanne Vega – vocals, guitar *

– acoustic and electric guitars,

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

– banjo, mandolin,

cimbalom The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in ...

on tracks 1, 2, 8, 10 *

Gail Ann Dorsey Gail Ann Dorsey (born November 20, 1962) is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she is perhaps best known for her lengthy residency in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016. Asid ...

– bass on tracks 1, 2, 6 and 8 *

– bass on tracks 3 and 5 * Mike Visceglia – bass on tracks 9 and 10 *

Zachary Alford Zachary "Zack" Alford is a professional drummer, known for his work with the B-52's, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and Tomoyasu Hotei. Alford was brought in by Danny Kortchmar to drum on Billy Joel's ''River of Dreams'' album. Alford contrib ...

– drums and percussion on tracks 1, 2, 6 and 8 *

Jay Bellerose Jay Bellerose is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session and live performance work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists. Biography Bellerose was born in Maine. A jazz enthusiast, he attended ...

– drums on track 3 * Sterling Campbell – drums on tracks 5 and 9 * Doug Yowell – drums on tracks 1, 4, 7, 9 and 10 * Joji Hirota –

Taiko Drum are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming m ...

s and

shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

on tracks 5 and 6 *

– trumpet on track 10 * Catherine Russell – backing vocals on tracks 1, 2, 8, 9 * Smichov Chamber Orchestra, Prague (conducted by Josef Vondracek) – strings on tracks 5, 6, 8 Technical personnel * Michael Tudor, assisted by Andy Gilchrist –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

except; Strings recorded at Studio Disk Barrandov, Prague by Lukas Vacek and Karel Holas; Trumpet recorded at

Angel Recording Studios Angel Recording Studios Limited (also referred to as Angel Studios) was a British recording studio based in the eponymous recording and mixing complex in Islington, London. The company was incorporated by James Warren Sylvester de Wolfe on 5 De ...

, London by Gary Thomas; additional recording at Kyserike Station, N.Y. by Gerry Leonard *

Kevin Killen Kevin Killen (born October 22, 1959) is a music producer, engineer, and mixer. His work has been recognized by multiple awards and nominations, and he has worked with a range of recording artists including Shakira, Peter Gabriel, U2, David Bowie, ...

– mixing

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Cooking Vinyl albums Suzanne Vega albums Albums recorded at Electro-Vox Recording Studios