Ta Mara & the Seen

When you looked at Ta Mara's publicity shots for her second album with the Seen, Blueberry Gossip, you saw a sexy blonde with fair skin and very big 1980s-style hair--she looked like a member of a pop-metal band and wouldn't have looked out of place standing alongside members of Vixen or Heart. But this Jesse Johnson-produced album is definitely urban contemporary, and if you heard the songs without seeing Ta Mara's picture, you might have assumed she was black. Despite Johnson's presence, Blueberry Gossip isn't as strong as Ta Mara & the Seen's first album, although it has its moments. While "Captured By Your Spell" and "Excite My Life" are forgettable, Ta Mara has some catchy, if unremarkable, Minneapolis-style grooves to work with on "Tuff Girl" and the title song. Also likable is Ta Mara's cover of Sly Stone's "Everyday People." The Minneapolis influence is strong on parts of the album, but some cuts aren't Minneapolis-sounding at all--"I Saved My Love" and "Gone in Love," for example, have more of a Chic/Change flavor. What Blueberry Gossip lacked was a hit; the R&B and pop stations that played "Everybody Dance" in 1985 ignored this album, which turned out to be a poor seller. It's regrettable that Ta Mara was unable to sustain a career in music; instead, she saw just how fickle the music world can be. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide