New York City has a new theme song in the form of Suzanne Vega's new single "Rats", an ode to the Big Apple's big problem. Written with the folk rock icon's long-time guitarist and musical director Gerry Leonard, the song finds inspiration in punk bands past and present.

Says Vega in a press release:

“I was talking to Jimmy Hogarth, the producer of my 2007 album Beauty & Crime. We were discussing who had seen the biggest rat. After that conversation, I kept reading about or hearing various rat stories, all of them true. I took careful note and set it all to music, inspired by the Ramones and Fontaines D.C.”

Watch the animated video by filmmaker Martha Colburn below:

Vega has been steadily working on a follow-up to her 2016 album Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers. In an interview with The Line of Best Fit in 2022, she shared a black and white video for a live recording of another new song, "Last Train from Mariupol", written for the people of the Ukrainian city decimated by Russian forces.

As well as her own tours, Vega has also been regularly performing alongside two instrumental ensembles from Belgium on a production of the epic Philip Glass and Robert Wilson opera Einstein on the Beach, in which she plays the role of narrator. A recording of the opera is planned will be released in December via Brussels-based record label VLEK.

Catch Vega on the road this fall at the following venues:

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