Many may not have heard of Suzanne Vega. Her singer-songwriter style became famous with the one-hit-wonder “Tom’s Diner,” but Vega returns on a new album dedicated to re-envisioning her old work as she struggles to remain musically relevant. Vega’s newest album, Songs Of Family, is part of a four-piece series, the first of which was released today.

The thematic four-volume series, entitled Close Up, deserves some recognition. Vega comes back re-recording her music and separating her songs thematically into subjects: love songs; people, places and things; states of being; and songs of family. Her goal: to shed new light and understanding of her music through a more intimate focus on the lyrics and melodies.

As a singer-songwriter, providing more insight to the heart of your music – such as the theme – provides a new ear to listen with and a new mindset to appreciate the music as a whole. The concept itself is intriguing, and Vega’s current audience will be thrilled with the acoustic versions of her songs.

However, when it comes to new listeners, it may lack a hook. Her most popular number from past album Retrospective, “Tom’s Diner,” was as big as it was because it showed progression from her other work. The brass line hits and Vega’s nonsensical syllables make for a catchy “play in your head all day” type of song. Volume 4: People, Places and Things for the most part has a coffee-house, casual feel and lacks the same memorability.

The acoustic recording allows for Vega’s desired emphasis on lyrics and melody; however, more variability in her voice would be nice. She comes across soft and gentle, with a poetic feel to her lyrics, and conjures a casual, dreamy atmosphere. This is great for a single song, but quickly becomes overused and redundant. Vega has a great voice; she should experiment with it musically. Increased range, vibrato, intensity—these are all elements that would have made Songs of Family a stronger album.

Vega has many talents when it comes to her music: Her enticing voice and poetic lyrics create a melancholy and somewhat haunting tone, and her fingerpicking technique on the guitar opens a range of possibilities for melody and keeps the music unique.

The album opens up with “Rosemary,” a lyrical track. The song is more like a poetry recital, which is an unexpected but beautiful concept. In “Tired of Sleeping,” the audience is immediately captivated by the soft and sweet guitar riff, ironically placed in a dreamlike state with Vega’s gentle voice repeating “And I’m tired of sleeping.”

Vega find her missing hook in “The Silver Lady.” She incorporates lyrics, which tell a story like in “Rosemary,” and beautifully melodic riffs and successfully uses her voice to call out to the listener rather than simply sing to them. This connection between herself and the audience causes listeners to feel the song is for them and about them instead of simply a statement on something.

Finally, if Vega’s goal was oriented around stressing the vocals and melody, she could have taken a few key songs and created duets: two guitars, two vocalists, male and female. These layers could have strengthened her current status and the status of the re-done songs.

“Simple” is the word to describe the new album. Current listeners of Suzanna Vega will be pleased with the reworked tracks, but it will likely not attract any new audience. Hopefully when Vega begins writing for a new album, she will utilize her endowments as a singer-songwriter and brew up an entirely new batch of tunes.