A protracted absence from the studio (a one-year release gap in the '80s was equal to a five-year gap in the early 2000s) caused by a notorious legal dispute with
Motown
did little to stall
Teena Marie
's momentum.
Robbery
,
Marie
's fifth album and first for
Epic
, didn't perform nearly as well on the
pop
chart as 1981's
It Must Be Magic
, but the devout black following remained, which obviously had no problem with
's discreet slipping of a little more
rock
and
Latin jazz
into her
R&B
.
wisely let their new acquisition do her thing -- it's the first album written completely by
, and the gradual development in her sound would pay off tenfold with 1984's crossover hit
"Lovergirl."
(Meanwhile,
's ex label was nurturing D.O.A. projects like
Monalisa Young
's
Knife
High Inergy
Groove Patrol
.) So is
merely transitional? Not at all. While directing a rotating cast of support, including but not limited to
the Average White Band
Steve Ferrone
, go-to Brazilian percussionist
Paulinho da Costa
, and undervalued keyboard wiz
Patrice Rushen
comes up with a set of songs that rivals anything she did for
. There's a little bit of everything here. It's varied but focused, however, highlighted by the torrid mid-tempo groove
"Midnight Magic,"
the club hit
"Fix It,"
and a trio of excellent
ballads
in
"Dear Lover,"
the particularly elegant
"Casanova Brown,"
and one of the finest
Minnie Riperton
tributes -- whether intentional or not -- in
"Shadow Boxing."
Though the album contains some of the then up-to-date technology that flawed a lot of other albums released in 1983,
knew not to go hog-wild with it. ~ Andy Kellman