Born in a New York suburb, songwriter extraordinaire Margo Guryan ironically enough grew up to create one of the most exquisite and appealing, if little heard, one-shot West-coast style, soft-pop gems of the late '60s. Sometimes when an adored cult obscurity is reissued, it becomes clear that a lot (if not all) of its mystique was due to its rarity. However, this time the buzz is justified: TAKE A PICTURE is a 1960s soft-pop masterpiece. The sound is a delightful collision, with surprisingly funky electric piano and Steve Cropper-style guitar leads dueling over prominent, clunky drums and unobtrusive orchestrations. Over it all, Guryan's breathy overdubbed vocals--her wispy, wobbily-pitched babytalk style was clearly heavily influenced by bossa nova pioneer Astrud Gilberto, who covered this album's dreamy "Think of Rain"--give the album its most attractive feature.