Robert Palmer - Clues
#343
by Tom Mott
Robert Palmer
Clues
Genre: "Sexy-Rock”
Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Tom’s Rating: 4.75 out of 5
Allen’s Highlights:
(All of Tom’s +) Sulky Girl
Tom’s Highlights:
Looking for Clues
Johnny and Mary
What Do You Care
Woke Up Laughing Rating:
I loved the title track on MTV. It was something not quite understood that begged to be figured out. Like the Meat Puppets five years later. Or Mike Kelley at MOCA s couple years after that. You like it, but you're confused. It reeks of Ze Records. Mutant Disco. No Wave. Lizzy Mercier Descloux. A 5-minute title track with a marimba solo in the middle? Who does that? Well yes, Oingo Boigo did that. And ok, the Violent Femmes did that. Oh fine, Under My Thumb. Fuck, there's a playlist in there somewhere.
This falls on the fashion model side of hip, not the boho (hobo) fuckup "I've got cockroaches in my fifth-floor walkup" side of hip. It's the Tom Tom Club side of Talking Heads. It reminds me of the two models I saw walking through the Louvre in 1989, and in that moment I glimpsed the future life I knew I was never going to have. The world where Grace Jones and Andy Warhol and Jim Jarmusch are all hanging out having a laugh. Ce n'est pas la vie.
This album unfolds upon repeated listens. Especially with alcohol! It's multi-tracked and mumbled and oozes style. Rubber Soul sounds like pot. Velvet Underground sounds like heroin. The Long Run sounds like cocaine. License to Ill sounds like a lot of beer. This sounds like a decadent amount of cognac. Not annoying Kim Kardashian table service cognac. More like Eartha Kitt on LSD levels of cognac. This album is proof of an alternate universe where Robert Palmer fronted the Talking Heads.
Spoiler alert: They have a lot more fun. This is 1980 but fuck me if it doesn't sound like 1986. Google it and .. oh! Gary Numan. Jerry Harrison. I didn't know that. Cheating! Track by track Looking For Clues - A thing unto itself Sulky Girl - Emotional Rescue era Stones Johnny and Mary - Sparks meets Talking Heads What Do You Care - Sounds an awful lot like Looking for Clues. Slow it down, add crunchy guitar and this will simply become ... irresistible I Dream of Wires - Gary Numan Woke Up Laughing - A hypnotic little electric kalimba sort of thing Not a Second Time - Above-par filler Found You Now - Matt Johnson hears this and says "Hold My Beer." This is a good album. Please [don't] mail alcohol to me. I will drink it.
