LP Review: Robbery
Released: 1983
LP Charts: #13 R&B, #119 Pop
Between May 1979 and June 1981, Teena Marie released four increasingly successful albums on the label culminating in the gold record It Must Be Magic (A). Then things came to a screeching halt. Marie accused Motown of providing insufficient royalties and signed with Epic Records. Motown sued to stop her and legal fisticuffs ensued.
Marie ultimately won the battle, but it meant she went nearly two-and-a-half years without an album.
Robbery was released in November 1983 and didn’t really make its mark until 1984. And this is back in an era when you’d release an album every year maybe every other year, if you were sluggish. So to go from mid-1981 to late-1983 without an album definitely stalls a career.
Fortunately, Marie hadn’t lost her touch in that meantime. However, [Julie Andrews voice] the sound of music [/Julie Andrews voice] was changing rapidly.
In 1981, most R&B and funk albums were still dominated by live instruments. By late 1983, the synthesizers and drum machines weren’t just accessories, but increasingly the dominant sounds in Black radio. For example, our dear friend Rick James went from “Give It To Me Baby” (lively funk with plenty of horns and a rollicking bass guitar) to “Cold Blooded” (icy and mechanical) in that time.
Robbery still leans toward the live instruments, but it’d be the final Marie album to do so. Also, that title seems like a dig at both Motown and Rick James, who had dated Marie but failed to inform her of his other girlfriends. There’s a specific song to torch his ass, don’t worry.
Good Stuff - Dance Section
“Playboy” is a nice send-off for Marie’s post-disco sound that she excelled at. Live horns, drums, and bass are extremely prominent. Plus this jam has an insanely good pocket. Wouldn’t get a track like this again from her in a long time.
“Midnight Magnet” is much more a herald of the future with its heavy reliance on synthesized bass and those electronic percussion smashes.
“Fix It” oddly tries to split the difference between past and future. Plenty of 80s synthwork, but there’s also a hyperactive live string section that’s almost incongruous with the synthesizers. Almost. It just holds together even as it teeters on the edge disaster.
Good Stuff - Slow Section
“Shadow Boxing” follows in the footsteps of “You Make Love Like Springtime” and “Portuguese Love” as the obligatory spicy jazz ballad. The formula is getting a bit diluted by now cuz “Shadow Boxing” is good, but clearly a step below the previous two cuts.
Now “Dear Lover” is the deluxe ballad here. A kiss off to her older, sweet soul sound. Ballads on future albums would be all about the machines. Makes the cinematic strings here even more mournful and beautiful.
Okay, I guess “Stop the World” also works in a similar vein. It’s just not as good. Although props for blending the styles of “Dear Lover” and “Shadow Boxing”.
The album closer is “Casanova Brown”, the jazzy song torching Rick James. Marie gets the superlative Stanley Clarke to play some upright bass and she goes all in on channeling her inner Sarah Vaughan. Unsurprisingly, the romantic and working relationship between Marie and James had ceased. Eventually, they’d work in the studio together again.
Okay Stuff
“Robbery” is standard R&B infused with rock and new wave. “Ask Your Momma” hits that same awkward stride as “Fix It”, but with less success. Still a decent track.
ALBUM SCORE: B
Nothing here soars quite like the previous two albums, but gotta give it up for the strong quality present here.
Song Scores
Robbery: 5/10
Playboy: 7.5/10
Shadow Boxing: 7/10
Midnight Magnet: 7/10
Fix It: 7.5/10
Ask Your Momma: 6/10
Dear Lover: 8/10
Stop the World: 7/10
Casanova Brown: 7/10