Suzanne Vega emerged in the mid-'80s, and while her intimate voice and acoustic guitar brought to mind Joni Mitchell, her urbane lyrics suggested a sensibility that was as much reportorial as confessional. Vega's second album, which replaced the delicate acoustic textures of her self-titled debut with more dramatic arrangements, includes Vega's career song, Luka, surely one of the biggest hits ever written about child abuse. But it was the energetic folk-rock production of Luka, thick with ringing guitars and pushed by perky drums, that let the listener luxuriate in a song that suggested the darkness that can lurk behind a neighbor's door. The title tune confronts personal loneliness with a similarly powerful performance, while Ironbound\u002FFancy Poultry makes a downtown landscape sound downright homey. Well-turned tunes like Calypso and Gypsy recall the softer textures of her debut. Ironically, Vega's next big hit would come when the English production duo DNA made a dance hit out of Tom's Diner, a nursery-rhyme tribute to a coffee shop that opens the album.