Teena Marie

It Must Be Magic
$9.98
I have loved Teena Marie since high school in the 80s! This is great album. Square Biz will never go out of style--even Missy Elliot puts down her rendition of the "rap" portion in one of her songs done just a few years back with Ciara. Her voice is so strong and so soulful.

Starchild
$6.99
Rather her voice. She's right up there with the devas like Whitney, Aretha, Patti, and today's Christina and Joss. I would hear so many people say back in high school, "Not bad for a white girl!" Well, it doesn't matter race she is. Her voice transcends all races and styles. She's gifted with a special talent most singers today can't even touch. "Lovergirl" is one of my favorites! Love the album.

La Dona
$13.98
For sure,Teena Marie spent almost the entire previous decade in limbo;releasing the typically New Jacked up Ivory as the decade began and her nearly impossible to find Passion Play a few years later,a more elaborate effort also with a lesser hip-hop flavor. She was raising her daughter of course but when she re-emmerged....well it looks like neither her previous label Epic nor Motown wanted anything to do with her.As talented as she is her history with record companies is right up there with Prince,George Michael and Gino Vannelli in terms of complication. Although when she finally made up her mind to make new music she decided to go for a sound that combined modern hip-hop/R&B with her own unique jazzy soul sound.Well so what?We've heard this story before:well meaning "old school" R&B artist ends up trying to update their music to appeal to modern audiences and ends up either falling flat on their face,having to play second fiddle to full-of-themself rappers who always seem to need to hog all the glory,or...both.Well in this case only on the otherwise funky "Off The Chain" with Baby Birdman" does that happen. Birdman,being one of the producers signed Teena to his Cash Money company-a hip-hop label. But if Teena was going to become a "modern" the mildly neglected jazz-hop scene would be the way to go for her. So what you get here is a sound that is stripped down,has the hip-hop beats (that seem to be required in some ways today) to please the Mary J and Ashanti fans and plenty of dissonant horn and keyboard sounds.That's a sound that is pretty much kept up for the majority of the album.The only big wild card is this lady's incredible voice,writing and intelligent lyrics are very far beyond even the best of todays modern R&B and hip-hop music and doesn't seem to fit it somehow.One of the most impressive songs here is "Makavelli Never Lied",an enthusiastic tune where Teena is having some issues with love and describing the honesty of her heroes in comparasin:Marvin Gaye,John Lennon and yes Makavelli.Other highlites are "Recycle Love To Hate",her funky duet with Rick James "I Got You" as well the the equally grooving "Honey Call","The Mackin' Game" with MC Lyte and some terrifically jazzy moments such as "High Yellow Girl" "I'm On Fire" and the brilliant "Black Rain". Because of the intense scope of the lyrics as well as their mildly conceptual/biographical content one might think this album would be overwelming.After all it does fall into the common CD trap of filling every digitally encoded bit on the disk with music,even though all of it has much to offer.Even so "I'm Still In Love" and "A Rose By Any Other Name" with Gerald Levert are sweet,soulful songs right in the classic Lady T tradtion.While it's been a long time this album,even if heavy on the modern twist features a whole lot of everything that makes Teena Marie so great:thoughtful,reflective lyrics,a lot of soul and funk with jazz on top of that. And considering she followed this up with another great album Sapphire. That I will be reviewing at another time but,luckily her comeback appears to be,from at least this new starting point a huge success.

Greatest Hits
$6.99
Of the six Lady Tee greatest hits cds that I have, this ranks at the top as a good representation of a few of her really big hits from the mid-late '80s like: OOO LA LA LA, OUT ON A LIMB, LOVERGIRL, & CASANOVA BROWN. While also giving listeners a sample of the creativity this woman possesses by her mixture of funk/r&b/pop elements.

This disc has a good balance between music tempos - it's not as ballad heavy as some of the later greatest hits releases and is a really fun disc to just pop in and listen to.

I'd highly recommend it to Lady Tee fans as well as those who just want a sample of her earlier work.