I got this album 2 weeks ago and it has been on heavy rotation ever since. This album was the bomb. I was skeptical to get it at first since from the late 80's and feared it would sound too 90's but it is great. There are dance tracks, funk tracks and a couple of nice ballads. This album is one of her best imo. Anyone else dig it??

This isn't one of my favorite Teena albums Like most albums released in the late 80s,it's got alot of those annoying drum machines and synths.Still,there are a few bright spots.The singles "Ooh La La La" and "Work It" are very good.

I'm the wrong one to ask, I think. Outside of the albums "Wild & Peaceful" and maybe 1/2 of "Robbery", I usually prefer singles from Teena vs. hearing a whole record from start to finish...

Ottensen said:

speaking of 'Wild and Peaceful',I recently bought the remastered,expanded edition with bonus tracks

SoulAlive said:

BONUS TRACKS?? I didn't know there was this edition available...!

Oooooh, DO tell, please!

Ottensen said:

I'm A Sucker For Your Love 5:55
Turnin Me On 6:08
Don't Look Back 7:33
Deja Vu (I've Been Here Before) 7:40
I'm Gonna Have My Cake (And Eat It Too) 5:32
I Can't Love Anymore 7:13

Bonus tracks:
I'm A Sucker For Your Love (instrumental) 5:36
You Got The Love (previously unreleased) 4:37
Every Little Bit Hurts (with Rick James) previously unreleased 7:03

It was released in 2005 but I just ordered my copy a few weeks ago You can get it www.Hip-O-Select.com or www.Dustygroove.com

dancerella said:

I Got Yo Number is a good track. I wish Teena/Rick would have made more funk & dance tracks together.

SoulAlive said:

CORRECTION: This Teena Marie album had way more drum machine programming & synths than the more natural sounding Naked To The World.

TonyVanDam said:

that is a great track. i agree i wish those 2 would have done more uptempo trcks together. it's just nice to hear teena doing songs that you can danec to instead of all ballads. it's a solid album. i also love trick bag, surrealistic pillow, work it, and crocodile tears with my girl bernadette cooper!

SoulAlive said:

that is precisely why i love this album!

SoulAlive said:

Aww...I wish it had 17 minutes of Deja Vu

Crocodile Tears & Trick Bag =

My favorite track on this album is "The Once And Future Dream". Sheer bliss.

TonyVanDam said:

This is one of the few Teena albums I never have attempted to listen to. How is it?

daPrettyman said:

Prince-ly!

If Prince was ever bothered in creating a sequel to his own Purple Rain album, it might have sounded like Teena's Emerald City album. Once Is Not Enough, Lips To Find You, & Love Me Down Easy are my favorite songs from the album.

daPrettyman said:

Yeah you are right. Naked to the world was more natural sounding than this
album. To me Emerald City, with the exception of Lips 2 find U, sounded like
Teena was recording this album as a soundtrack to Indiana Jones or Romancing
the Stone.

THIS is my ALL TIME favorite Teena album. She showed all her love for Prince and echoed Hendrix with having Bootsy styled Hendrix talking and employing Stevie Ray Vaughn to also echo Hendrix on "You So Heavy". I always dug Teena but when I heard the Emerald City album, I fell in love with her completely. But yeah, there was no shame in her game showing the world that she dug Prince. Not only from the tracks but her album cover reeked Prince. The paisley guitar and the "Erotic City/Emerald City" joint.
[Edited 10/9/08 0:29am]

blackguitaristz said:

hey BG what up? what are your fave tracks from this album? do you like Naked to the world too??

blackguitaristz said:

Well said BG, it's my fave Teena album as well. I just love the dark feeling on most tracks and the rock guitars. And what an album cover!

paisleypark4 said:

The remastered 'It Must Be Magic' CD contains a lengthy live version of "Deja Vu",but I assume you already know that

dancerella said:

Yeah I do like Naked To The World. I like all of Teena's material. I have so much respect for her as an artist. She has the whole package. Great songwriter, very good musician and one of the best female vocalists ever, in my mind. Teena, Chaka and Minnie are my all time fave female vocalists. Oh and Karen Carpenter! My favorite song on Emerald City hands down is "You So Heavy". The simple fact that a woman was so in tuned to Hendrix type rock and blended it in with her thang, to have that element in "You So Heavy", is a MAJOR turn on coming from a female vocalist. Teena had Stevie Ray do his best impersonation of Hendrix towards the end of this song. And then for Teena to leave in Stevie doing his Voodoo Child type muffing on the guitar, tells me all I need to know about this woman. Totally showed where her head was at. She was like "Hey Prince, you're not the ONLY one in the 80's who can evoke Hendrix!" Someone who writes and produces her own shit, yaeh, I LOVE that song. I did a thread about "You So Heavy" in this forum a few years ago and nobody wanted to fuck with it. I was like "STILL cool. Hell, even better. There is a peace in knowing that Teena and myself are the only two people who digs this song!" The sheer vesatility that she shows on both sides of this album is amazing.
[Edited 10/9/08 0:46am]

rebelsoldier said:

Thanx..Yeah, Teena is no joke. And I love how Teena sounds when she sings. It's very sexual. Like on the song "Lips 2 Find U" (another obvious nod to Prince in the spelling), after every single phrase in this song, she ends it with this little whine. She goes up at the end of every note. Like she's in the middle of having sex with you and she's talking to you at the same time, telling you about how it is for her. "Oh yeah-aaaah,..right there baby-eee!". That's how she sounds on that song. She does it non stop on that track.

blackguitaristz said:

damn now i'm really gonna have to pay close attention this album to really appreciate the artistry that went into it. love lady t and wish she was doing funky stuff still. seems that she has slowed it down ver the years.
[Edited 10/9/08 10:47am]

blackguitaristz said:

LOL! I know, right! My two fav tracks on this album are Love Me Down Easy and Sunny Skies! Those last two cuts on the album just put me in that mood, ya know! I've always dug this album, though I don't consider it her absolute best. But, it always had a special place in my heart.

paisleypark4 said:

Yeah, those dreamy synths are to die for. They take me to another time and place! The live version SoulAlive talks about will do, though.

I love it. It was the first Teena Marie CD I ever bought back in 1988.

dancerella said:

Wowugotit said:

yay someone else loves it too!

Ironically, Naked To The World was my first Teena Marie cd. I still have the longbox it came in.

dancerella said:

Her best album , tick bag and call me
they don't have it in the uk.