Search - Tara Kemp :: Kemp, Tara

Okay album that suffers from too many samples

Preston | nc | 06/07/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"At this point, I'm sure that VH-1's wiseguy host is going to make wisecracking jokes on Tara Kemp and her short lived career on a future Where Are They Now show. But she made a decent debut in 1991. The album was know for its only two top 10 hits of Hold You Tight (which still gets played sometimes) and the infectiously funky Piece of My Heart. But while the rest of the album has some fun numbers, it suffers from an overreliance of samples on mostly every song. Save for that one nicely sung ballad on here, the rest of the album is a patchquilt of the new jack swing sound that dominated most of R&B and pop during '91. The drawback was that she came around the same time as Paula Abdul's album. And Mariah Carey and several other female artists were huge too. End result--more people decided to go for Paula or Mariah instead of Tara. I don't understand why Giant Records didn't bother to promote her career a little more or give her more exposure. But they had a huge year with Color Me Badd and the New Jack City soundtrack album--they were at their peak back then, but never got better than that. If there was more an emphasis on her singing talent than sample overkill and beats, this album would have performed better. And if this came out in the current era of American Idol, Simon Cowell would have butchered her singing big time! Just wasn't there at first, too much hesitance in the singing on most songs. This is more of a fun kind of album to listen to than something of substance."

Good, but...

Noompsey | Norfolk, Va | 06/18/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tara Kemp is another white artist I get grief about listening to because I'm black. I found this cassette used for 0.85 at a flea market mother dragged me off to in '98, having only heard 'Hold You Tight.' I was amazed by the amount of awesome music on this album. I rewound 'Too Much' and listened to it 3 times before going to the next song. Tara Kemp reminds me a lot of Lisa Fischer. Both wowen are gorgeous, their singing is outstanding, they both released their albums in the same year, 1991, and neither of them made another album. To this day, I don't know what's become of either of them. At least Ms. Fischer ONLY put full-length songs on her record. No samples, and no epilogue or prologue. If Ms. Kemp had followed that example, I would definitely given 5 stars instead of 4."

Beautiful voice but...

hot_pink_vinyl | Orlando | 11/13/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This album is full of filler. I loved her voice on the beginning of "Monday Love," and the interludes where pretty. But sadly, that's it."