Robert Palmer - Clues

I remember this album, or at least the two songs I most closely associated with the album: "Looking For Clues" and "Johnny and Mary." The first was quirky and the second was very new wave. I love the second, and was perplexed by the first. Over the years Robert Palmer would come to exude cool, but to me he would forever be the geeky guy holding up a magnifying glass who was looking for clues. Of course that's not entirely accurate either. 

When I found a copy of Clues I was pretty stoked to go back and hear what was going on back in 1980. The album opens with "Looking for Clues" and it's hard to imagine that it's been over four decades since the song came out. It's still so good. Chris Frantz from Talking Heads played bass drum on the track. The next song "Sulky Girl" was a straight ahead rock song in the same sort of vein as "Bad Case of Loving You" which sort of made sense, and I suspect this is what people were expecting. "Johnny and Mary" followed and was back in the new wave arena, and remains of my favourite Robert Palmer tracks ever. There's just a swagger and groove to the song. The first side closes out with another new wave track "What Do You Care" that must have felt like the future of pop music at the time. It's pretty cool, and this was cutting edge stuff. Then just like that the first side was over. Man that went by fast, hardly fifteen minutes. Oh well, it was good.

Time to flip it over.

Side two opens with a droning keyboard and a unemotional vocal delivery. "I Dream of Wires" was written by Gary Numan, and featured him on keyboards as well. The song is really cool, and I have always loved this era of early techno as it was equal parts organic and synthetic. It's got a foot in each world, and for me this stuff never feels old. "Woke Up Laughing" is a strange song that is almost hypnotic as it just seems to stay in one mode and never seems to create any tension or resolve, but is strangely appealing nonetheless before abruptly being cut off as "Not a Second Time" just seems to be dropped in out of nowhere. This was an old Beatles track, and honestly not to piss on the Beatles, but Palmer's version is really uninspired. It's the only song that felt like filler. The album closes out with "Found You Now" that was co-written with Gary Numan, however, unlike "I Dream if Wires" the song didn't seem to connect, and unlike the meandering quality of "Woke Up Laughing" there wasn't any here that drew me in. 

Then it was over. Eight songs and hardly half an hour. However, when it was good it was really good but somehow aside from a few highlights, and a particularly good first side, the impression I'm left with is rather uninspired. With such a short album I guess the goal was to leave 'em wanting more. Sadly for me I was just left wondering, "Is that it?"