Customer Reviews

Emerald City

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Teena Marie's 1986 album "Emerald City" caused critics and fans alike to scratch their heads in confusion. The Teena of yesteryear, the Rick James protoge, the soulful powerhouse behind heart-on-your-sleeve balladry like "Dear Lover" seemed to have taken a vacation with the release of "Emerald City." Here was a Teena Marie that whipped her voice around the driving funk of "Lips To Find U," who head-banged with the conviction of a hard rock singer on "You So Heavy," who evoked images of a torch singer of days gone by with "Sunny Skies." "Emerald City," featuring a poem chronicling the emotions of a character, "Pity," through the theros of being misunderstood, (not to mention the dark cover image of Teena and guitar surrounded by an eerie green backdrop), both hinted that this album was going to be something else. And that it was. While not as commercially successful as previous work, "Emerald City" featured "The Ivory Queen of Soul" making an album that, as she has said in interviews, was for herself. The music, a bit dependent on mid-80's synth production, does sound a little dated. Even so, what makes these cuts memorable is the way Teena sings them: with conviction, with sass, with style. As she wraps her vocals around the atmospheric, hypnotic "Shangri-La," or scats her way through the delicious lyricism of "Sunny Skies," Teena Marie deftly showcases her musical tastes and excelles in each genre she shares with the listener. "Batucada Suite," a breathless romp into Latin music and African percussion, features Teena evoking the musical heritages of many lands, at last proclaiming "Jesus music is Heaven-sent, to remind us of what has went." (This just goes to show that Teena's knack for wordplay coupled with intense musicality still remains her biggest strength). As Teena writes her own lyrics, she can get away with such word puzzles, not to mention that her writing far outshines the "baby I love you" same-ness of her contemporaries. As a whole, the album runs the gamut of Marie's musical influences, ranging from the psychadelic-stylings of the title track, to the familiar funk of "Once Is Not Enough" and "Lips To Find U," to the brooding surprise of "You So Heavy," to the Spanish-style of "Batucada Suite," to what is arguably Teena's biggest musical strength, the jazz ballad "Sunny Skies," which is lyrically brilliant and features saxaphone work by Bradford Marsalias. Though underrated, this is an album worth listening to, not once (you'll think it's wierd) but over and over (you'll find it to be a creative, inspired musical journey through one of soul music's most talented interpreters). Intense, surprising, soulful, and inspired: "Emerald City" showcases Teena Marie's far-reaching musical scope, illustrating that she was and remains an artist in the true sense of the word.

Without a doubt, Teena has always been an overlooked genius. She is the evidence of the trouble of trying to compete against your own hit single. When "Lovergirl" was being overkilled on the radio, people were overlooking other great songs of hers. "Emerald City" was the follow up album after "Starchild". And on this album, she threw out the disco, and turned to plain old Rock.
And on parts of this album she is almost metal sounding. And what is not known by most of the general public, is not only does Teena Marie write, produce, and sing all her own songs, but, most of the music is played by one person, Teena. She is for the most part a one woman band. Let me tell you my five favorites on "Emerald City", in order. 1)"Lips To Find You." The song to listen while you are in the backseat of your car with your lover. 2)"You So Heavy". Pure Teena Marie magic. One of the great guitar solos near the end of this song awaits you. 3)"Shangri-La". Blast this one and you will understand the power of "Shangri-La". This song builds to a great climax. 4)"Sunny Skies". At just over 7 minutes, this song is a jazzy song for romantics that brings out Teena's unique vocal style. 5)"Love Me Down Easy". If you are a drum lover, this is your song. One day, I hope she gets the respect she has sorely been denied by the music industry. Untill then, her hard core fans will still be there for her.

Length:: 3:52 Mins

At the time that Teena recorded this album, she had already covered a huge musical landscape. Each album up to that point had made it's own statement, clearly representing the versatility that rests within Teena Marie. "Emerald City", to many, seemed to have come from out of nowhere, but it is perhaps Teena's greatest celebration of the many influences who made her the artist that she is.

"Emerald City" carries a strong rock influence (particularly in the first four cuts), but it is blended with funk and salsa rhythms, truly creating it's own unique brew. The first four tracks take the listener on the journey through the Milky Way of Teena's mind. Lyrically, she once again melds the sensual and the spiritual (as her hero Marvin Gaye did so well) and explores the trechery and glory of love ("Call on me I'm your passifier/when you need some company/Sister can't fly on one wing/so just give her what she needs/You make me feel like drifting through my golden years/Thoughts of you go to my head/You turn me on/oh you're so heavy")

The last half of the album is an incredible set in which Teena displays the heavy influence that Stevie Wonder and Curtis Mayfield had on her work. "Shangri-la" and "Love Me Down Easy" are lyrical reminders of Curtis Mayfield's "The Makings of You" and "I'm So Proud", respectively...but in a Star Trek universe. "Batucada Suite" and "Sunny Skies" are direct descendents of Stevie Wonder's "Superwoman". "Sunny Skies" and "Love Me Down Easy" are easily two of Teena's best performances to this day...

So, I said all of that to say, that if you are a true appreciator of good music..and want to get schooled to it's origins, this is an album essential to your collection. It doesn't come any purer than Teena Marie.

(And as with each of Teena's albums, don't over look the poem in the liner notes!)

Honestly when I bought this album back in '86 and listened to it, it quickly became my least favorite Teena Marie joint. The only songs that immediately captured my heart were: SHANGRI-LA (got heavy rotation in Philly) & LOVE ME DOWN EASY.

Over the last few months I've been giving it more than a cursory listen and found that I now enjoy more than I dislike. The best thing about Teena Marie is that she is a true ARTIST. She writes beautiful poetry and songs that could be poems and to date she's NEVER compromised her art. She's always produced music that comes straight from her heart - it's jazzy, r&b, soulful & funky - classic Lady T.

On further review the songs that I have grown to love in addition to the two mentioned above are:

ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH - reminds me of vintage Prince music
LIPS TO FIND YOU - love the guitar riffs
YOU SO HEAVY - truly deep song that's like reading her love letter to Rick James
BATUCADA SUITE - very carnivale & upbeat
SUNNY SKIES - jazzy, soulful & classically Teena

To those trying to build a Teena Marie collection, be prepared to give this disc more than a quick once-over type of listen because it is a little different than her previous albums but it is definitely well worth a chance.

Teena Marie ceases to amaze me. Her angelic vocals, mixed with some toe tappin' funk and a dash of R&B soul flavor make her the pennicle of true talent. I have just discovered Teena Marie this past year and it has been one heck of a year! :) I started off buying "Starchild", then "Naked To The World", then I got into her Motown years by downloading some essential Teena tracks like, "Square Biz" (my fave so far!), "I Need Your Lovin'" and "Now That I Have You". Then I brought "Robbery" and then "Emerald City". "Emerald City" shocked me at first due to it's dark and sinister looking cover with Teena washed out in green holding a Fender but I wasn't too "frightened" by the "raw rock" that the reviews on here had claimed it to be. So I decied to give it a go. But after a first listen I was "convinced" that this album was plain weird and "I need to listen to "Behind The Groove again"!

Now this album takes awhile for you to get used to it. But once you get past the weird album cover, the hard heavy hitting 80's metal sound and the fact that it's a concept album about a girl named Pity who sets out on a musical journey to set the record straight about race, you will be utterly surprised at how musically gifted Teena Marie is.

The title track opens up the album with a bang. Bootsy Collins of *PFunk fame gives us the lines: "Welcome To Emerald City, where the lights are so green, where everything you want to be, you have already been". A very synthized (duh! It is 1986) track that has a hard, dark feel to it and adding some reference to "The Wizard Of Oz", no kidding (Everytime I looked into the most famillar face, it seem they all had gone and changed their names) The only track that you really have to listen to again and again to get the gist of it.We are not in Kansas anymore!
The true close to funk sounding is "Once Is Not Enough". Great bass and guitar work. Will keep you on your feet! "Lips 2 Find U" will have to be my favorite off this album. Great twisted lyrics (Major, not the minor chord, love that!)and also some more wonderful and funky guitar work. Another great dance track. "You So Heavy" which is a shocker to listen too, shows Teena in a new light. She is rockin' hard on this track! Very raw, the guitar solo by Stevie Ray Vaughan at the end is to die for! "Shangri-La" is poetic and mysterious. Sets off a kinda eerie vibe with Teena's vocals topping a drum machine and synths. "Batucada Suite" is bubbly and island like with the steel drums, horns and percussion. Bradford Marsalis gives wonderful sax work and the lyrics suggest how to throw all your cares away and dance to an array of music tastes. Wonderfully arranged. "Love Me Down Easy" is another favorite of mine. Teena sings her heart out on this one. Very pleading and loving. Teena sings over, once again, a drum machine and synths plus with some added guitars. This song gives an awesome climax. Beautiful song. "Sunny Skies" shows the jazz side of Teena featuring solos by her backing musicians (upright bass is done by bass great Stanley Clarke). The lyrics are also very poetic and Teena gives an excellent performance showing that she can dip into some REAL acoustic jazz.

Overall, this album has to be one of my favorite albums of all-time. I'm not kidding. Yeah, it's a little strange and yeah, it sounds like the 80's but c'mon! Teena was expirementing with a new sound, she wanted to do something different! We can't always demand that she should do "Porteguese Love Part 2"! This album proves that an artist can be flexible with their sound and still give a top notch performance.Just goes to show you that you can't judge this album by it's cover! So she did a little rock? She did an exceptionality good job of it and I stand up and applaud Teena of this underrated effort. I can't wait to enhance my Teena Marie collection, I plan to buy her new outing "La Dona" and many others. So get this album if you want to enjoy good music with a twist and also done by a true genius of music.

Starsprinkles's Top 5
1. Lips To Find You
2. Love Me Down Easy
3. Once Is Not Enough
4. You So Heavy
5. Batucada Suite

Lady T has always been bad.This Disc reflects her many sides.Teena Marie is a strong writer,arranger,Producer,instrumentalist,&Damn she can Sing.she deserves more props.she has always come correct.Lips To Find you was tight.she is a musical Genius to me and very Prolific.

This album, as a previous critic mentioned, IS a continuation musically/lyrically of Teena's "Starchild" album. The rock influence is definitely more present here than it was on "Starchild," but not in a negative way. It's more than apparent in such cuts as "Once Is Not Enough," my JAM, "Lips to Find You," "You So Heavy" and "Love Me Down Easy." That makes up 50% of the album. The Funk/R&B, Jazz and Latin influences make up the rest in the title cut, "Shangri-La," "Batucada Suite" and the magnificent closer, "Sunny Skies." Vocally, she's in typically awesome form, but stretches out her chops in the harder rocking category. It's not really "Rock," as some might think, it's more of a Prince-like, Minneapolis kind of Funk/Rock comparable to that heard throughout the Purple Rain Era. How this EVER was classified as a Heavy Metal album is not only bizarre, but insulting I would think. Teena's music doesn't even come close to such a genre. The true genius in this recording is in the lyric booklet where she writes an incredible variation on the whole "Wizard of Oz/Emerald City" theme using the color green as a way of "UN-coloring" people with a sad little girl named "Pity" playing the part of Dorothy; a MUST READ! The woman is not only a poetess, but a master writer, composer, musician, producer and arranger. NO ONE can hold a candle to her except for (in those days) Patrice Rushen or Angela Winbush. Oddly, Winbush would have greater success in producing OTHERS while Marie would fare better producing herSELF in much the same fashion as Rushen. The first time I listened to "Emerald City" I wasn't feeling it, but here I am 23 years later and can absolutely appreciate its incredible mastery. Bear in mind that a Caucasian female performing R&B/Soul with so much passion was extremely out of the norm in the early to mid- Eighties and by the very fact that she has charted consistently in the R&B and Soul arenas is incredibly special; that it doesn't nor SHOULDN'T matter WHAT color you are, but what songs your soul sings. Nonetheless, she brings them ALL to the light. Long live, my beautiful Lady Tee, the Ivory Queen of R&B (R.I.P.). :-(

This has & continues to be my all time favorite album (La Donna comes in 2nd). The reason why I like this album IS because Teena is 'ALL over the Place'. I absolutely love that brings out a touch of Rock but it doesn't stray too far from R&B but 'Sunny Skies' truly cements that her best vocules are performed in Jazz & Love ballads.
Despite all of that (I absolutely love Portugese Love, Out on a Limb); somehow its Shaingra-La Does something to me. It hits all of my internal chords. I NEVER get tired of it and there is absolutely nothing else that I am aware of that sounds like it.
I really like HE's SO Heavy & her vocals on the end & yes! She does let her vocals rock out at towards the end (it's fun).
But, it's Shaingra-La that does it for me. I'm still in Love with You while it's an easy smooth, up to date, groove; it's Shaingra-La that does it FOREVER for me.
I still can't believe that she is gone. What a shock!(Her death reminds me so very much of Flo Jo's because of the seizures & death during sleep).
R.I.P. 'Lady T'

I AM a real Teena Marie Fan. I have EVERY ALBUM she has ever released, and guest starred on...I attend most of her concerts when she's back home here in L.A. and she is still in heavy rotation in my CD players (both in my car and at home)...I can never understand why "so-called" real fans of Teena "dis" this album. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Teena on this Emerald City masterwork. My advice .... listen to it .... really listen to it. Absolutely Brilliant! So what -- she tried something different from the "normal" R&B foundation and maybe that's what you're used to... but isn't that what we want from our favorite musicians - to grow and explore and take us with them. I, for one, would love to hear songs from this album sung live at her concerts ... especially Sunny Skies, Love Me Down Easy and Shangri-la.
Guest musicians on this album Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bootsy Collins, Bradford Marsalis, Stanley Clarke, Paulinho daCosta and Nathan East ... If I could tell all of her fans - old and new one thing, that would be ...."There's another side inside of you...Open up and take the music in..." and get behind this groove. Fan 4Life.