Robert Palmer

Clues

This album gives millions of clues that it's Robert's best

Review Score:

(10/10)
1980 was an important year in the history of the world. After all, I was born that year (August 11, 1980). Well, maybe that's not important, but in pop music things were changing, not always for the better. Led Zeppelin respectfully decided to disband after John Bonham was found dead. On the upside though, pop music was becoming more synthesized than before. While whether or not this is good is debatable, I prefer synthesizers when they were used as just another instrument to carry the song (like The Who's WHO'S NEXT album), not as the annoying focal point (the influential yet still undeniably robotic Kraftwerk). In England, where the cutting edge was more welcome than in America, one artist that fit the former description was Gary Numan. With #1 hits like "Cars" and "Are Friends Electric?", Numan helped foreshadow the synth-pop of the 1980s, and was hailed that early in his career as a pioneer. One of the artists that was directly influenced by the young synth wizard was Robert Palmer. After half a decade of mining Caribbean and African sounds for his music, Palmer felt it was time for a change, and went digital for his 1980 album CLUES. While Gary Numan may be forever considered a one-hit wonder in America ("Cars" was his only top 10 hit), his influence on British pop music is undeniable. Not just a fan of Numan's work, Palmer actually collaborated with the man himself on CLUES, not surprisingly making this probably Palmer's best album ever. Robert comes close to stealing Numan's "I Dream Of Wires" (which Numan would record later that year on his album TELEKON), proving Palmer's wonderful way with covering already proven hits. Numan even co-writes "Found You Now" with Palmer, which is surprising because it's actually one of the least-mechanical songs on the album. Other songs like "Looking For Clues", "Sulky Girl", and the major British hit "Johnny & Mary" have synthesized rhythms that point the listener equally to the dance floor as well as their headphones to hear what weird sounds Palmer has just created. CLUES isn't totally overrun by computers, though. Songs like "What Do You Care" and a cover of the Beatles' "Not A Second Time" have a more ballsy rock sound that proves Palmer was just at home in the arenas as well as the discos. However, for a guy signed to a record company called Island Records, a song with a taste of the Caribbean is always expected. For CLUES, it's "Woke Up Laughing", which transports the listener to the land of pina coladas and almost eternally sunny days. No surprise that "Woke Up Laughing" would later be used as a title for a collection of the more indigenous works on Palmer's musical journey around the globe. I have no problem saying that CLUES is very well Robert Palmer's masterpiece, but there's only one small problem with it all: the length. At just a little over half an hour, this album sounds just as much like an unfinished masterpiece as well as an excellent album on its own. Perhaps CLUES, along with Palmer's entire catalog, can be remastered with some bonus tracks that can give us a clue of what else was going on inside Robert's head while he was making this masterpiece of recorded sound. Until then, we have CLUES with which to see that Robert Palmer was more influential than songs and videos like "Addicted To Love" could have ever indicated.

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