SUZANNE VEGA

Vega's latest is a celebration of feminine sensuality inspired by marriage and the birth of her first child. Hers is an edgy, urban sort of domesticity -- more John and Yoko than Paul and Linda -- that finds as much to fear in the comfort of connubial bliss as to cherish. If anything, marriage and motherhood only seem to have raised the stakes in Vega's anxiety department. She is saved by a playful streak that comes through in husband/producer Mitchell Froom's industrial-folk atmospherics -- less intrusive here than on the previous "99.9F" -- and in the frank sexuality of "Caramel," the jazzy bossa nova of "Stockings," and "My Favorite Plum," which if I read it right, isn't about the kind of fruit that grows on trees.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

This five-CD set, including the complete official releases of the V.U. and dozens of unreleased tracks, reveals a hidden history of one of rock's greatest and most influential bands. For one, they started out as a folk-rock unit heavily influenced by Bob Dylan. Lou Reed's training as a Brill Building songwriter, however, comes through on a number of surprisingly poppy tunes, including British Invasion-style rock, for a band that plumbed the darkest depths, both musically and lyrically. And the palpable tension between Reed and John Cale rivals that of Lennon and McCartney. An absolute must for anyone serious about "rock" music; without it you cannot truly understand the beast.