Customer Reviews

Take a Picture

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I know it's a cliche, but this is a real "lost" treasure, a 1968 album of a fine singer-songwriter that deserves wider recognition. Unfortunately one has to decide between the US and Japanese versions of this CD. The US version features the entire LP (first 11 tracks on the CD) plus 3 bonus tracks, all of which are worth having. The Japanese version features the entire LP plus 4 different bonus tracks, all of which are also worth having. My personal preference is the Japanese version (the bonus track, "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You", covered by Claudine Longet, is a favorite), but you can't go wrong with either version... The US version is packaged in a digipak, the Japanese CD in a standard jewel case. Both come with fine, informative booklets. If only they could have put all the bonus tracks together on one CD....

I heard some of TAKE A PICTURE on the ALAN HABER show last Sunday and was blown away! I just got the album and it was perfect from top to bottom. It seems that the best album of '00 is from 1968. I guess I became a fan of Margo's writing when I heard SHINE and SUNDAY MORNING on the LINUS OF HOLLYWOOD album a few months back. Now, after hearing TAKE A PICTURE, I'm convinced Margo is one of the best Pop song writers ever. LOVE SONGS, LOVE and SUN are my favorite tracks. It's certainly well worth plunking down the extra money to buy all versions of this record (U.S./Japanese - and I hear there might be a European version soon as well)as each have totally different and wonderful bonus tracks. Every Pop fan must own this gem of a record. Point blank:)

I know it's a cliche, but this is a real "lost" treasure, a 1968 album of a fine singer-songwriter that deserves wider recognition. Unfortunately one has to decide between the US and Japanese versions of this CD. The US version features the entire LP (first 11 tracks on the CD) plus 3 bonus tracks, all of which are worth having. The Japanese version features the entire LP plus 4 different bonus tracks, all of which are also worth having. My personal preference is the Japanese version (the bonus track, "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You", covered by Claudine Longet, is a favorite), but you can't go wrong with either version, and if price is a consideration the US version sets you back only half as much. The US version is packaged in a digipak, the Japanese CD in a standard jewel case. Both come with fine, informative booklets. If only they could have put all the bonus tracks together on one CD....

If you had to guess when Take A Picture was released after hearing it a couple of times you'd probably be a bit confused. You may think it's from the early seventies Carole King singer-songwriter era because of the confessional - though never cloying - nature of the lyrics, and the proliferation of ballads. Or you may think it's a slightly retro-sounding contemporary album,due to the fullness of the arrangements and instrumentation. However, when you discover that it was actually recorded in 1968, you realise how far ahead of her time Margo Guryan actually was. Her laid back pristine vocals steer well away from the over-emoting of many of the more acclaimed 60s (and 70s) solo performers, and it's only on the last track track of the album proper that psychedelia reverberates. The bonus tracks on my version, which seems to be Spanish, are slightly different to the ones here and could all have appeared on the original album without detracting from its excellence. The 8:17 Success Bound Merrygoround..., Come to Me Slowly, and Timothy Gone make you wonder why Guryan didn't release a few more records. The flowery design on the cardboard slipcase is groovy too. You'll love it!

I've recently become a fan of the new pop revival, and a friend of my insisted I purchase this CD to show me where it all came from. Well, he wasn't kidding. This is the best - the music, the melodies, the songs...

My favorite songs are Love Songs and Sun. I can't believe everyone doesn't know about and own this record. I got the Japanese version as well 'cause it has different bonus tracks, and it ws well worth the extra bucks. I play this record every day, and you should, too.

To call it a soft pop classic wouldn't do it justice. It's a rock n roll classic from a time when people really cared about music.

Quite simply put this offering packs more action in "Sunday morning" than any modern rock female artist. The drums sound like John Bonham. Balladeers beware - she has a sweet, soft side. Too bad Brian Wilson and her never collaborated, a shame indeed. Her voice sounds similar to the female lead voice in Belle and Sebastian. This is a brilliant album and the liner notes are very informative. Also, all songs are written by Margo Guryan which is pretty cool, also considering the year is '68 and the music industry appeared to be dominated by men.

Fans of Claudine Longet will not want to miss this one. Margo Guryan was generally better known as a songwriter (for Claudine Longet, Bobbie Gentry and many more), and we can be grateful that, like fellow 1960's songwriter, Ellie Greenwich, she also chose to record some of her own material.

Take A Picture is the sound of a breezy sunny day filtered nthrough your speakers. You'll be instantly drawn in by the cool country-lite rock of "Sunday Morning". "Sun" is a radiant pop burst complete with strings, odd time signatures and abrupt time changes. I could go on describing tracks but what's the point, they are all lovely and dreamy and if you like this sort of sound you will be in heaven. This is a gentle, delicate world full of pop delights and it is very fitting the tasteful Spanish label Siesta have chosen to release it (the Free Design CDs they put out are essential).

A must for all pop fans.

As another commented on how they are upset over this LP purchase, I felt the need to counter that. This record is a collection of simply wonderfully structured and arranged songs. All pounced and cascaded upon by a decadent softness that takes each track to a higher level. The voice is in no way girly as suggested and is far more advanced than anything The Free Design could of hoped to of written in their bubbly times. It is not a sunshine pop record by no means. Expect a record to wrap around in the late afternoon of a crisp fall day. Simply brilliant.

I purchased this CD after being linked to it from Billy Nicholls' "Would you Believe?". After thoroughly enjoying Nicholls' awesome album I figured this one would warrant a listen. I'm glad I went ahead and bought "Take a Picture"... it's definetly a decent soft-pop album very reminiscent of others from it's period.

The whole album reverberates with a kind of "coffee house" type atmosphere; you never get the feeling there was any large production involved with any of the tracks, (and the vocals here and there bring to my mind sitting in a beatnick hangout drinking latte's and talking about fighting personal oppression...). The music can really groove in places, pushing the melodrama of Margo's singing into a different realm for the listener. You end up bobbing your head to songs about loss and love accentuated with bass and guitars, which is not something that happens alot in popular music.

Lyrically and musically the record sounds very similar to Wendy and Bonnies "Genesis" moreso then Nicholls' "Would you Believe?"...mainly because of the female vocals and "lyrical mattering" lyrics. In contrast, however, Wendy and Bonnies album shows just how innocent they were with the lyrics... where Guryan talks about being "left before".

All of the songs have a message of love of some kind in them... which is both a good thing and a bad thing, really. Good because it can be fairly cohesive, bad when you look for deeper meanings in the lyrics and find that several songs are similar with their message. It is primarily for that reason I gave this CD 4 stars and not 5; if she had ventured out with her lyrics and written and sung about things other then love then who knows how great this CD could've been.

If you liked this I'd recommend checking out Wendy and Bonnies "Genesis", Billy Nicholls' "Would you Believe?" and pretty much anything by the Free Design.

Take a picture es uno de esos discos, como el "Would you believe?" de Billy Nicholls, que ha llegado a ser valorado con el tiempo por la crítica como una verdadera obra maestra y a convertirse en auténtico objeto de coleccionismo. Una artista oscura en su momento, Margo Guryan es considerada en la actualidad como una respetada compositora y una de las máximas representantes, junto con Jackie DeShannon, Marianne Faithful y Claudine Longet, de esa efímera incursión del pop de finales de los 60 por los vericuetos de la sofisticación más etérea o, como lo llaman los japoneses (quienes lo han convertido en algo así como su pasatiempo nacional) el "cute pop". Como he leído de alguna de esas pedantes luminarias de la historia del rock "This album may be too good to be true, but it's also everything we could wish for". Ahí queda eso.