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Album Details
- Artist: Robert Palmer
- Album: Riptide
- Label: Island
- Year of Release: 1985
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: charlesmartel on 2011-07-13
RecommendThis is a solid little pop album which seems to aspire to little more than that. Now there is nothing wrong with such a stance of itself, but there are limitations which pop albums are placed under by their very nature and this one is no exception. Add to that, eighties pop albums often suffered from the same generic faults – unimaginative drum machine programming and slapped bass guitars. These are the very things which turn many people off the eighties. Sadly, both are in abundance here: it wouldn’t be an eighties pop album if they weren’t. Any length of time listening to this album will mark it out most definitely as a child of that decade.
By the time he released Riptide, Robert Palmer had done the rounds as a performer for many years and it was gratifying to see that some measure of commercial success finally came to him later in his career. Particularly in the Far East, Palmer gained an immense following on from the release of this album. Yet, his real heart was in soul and the blues and it is kind of ironic that it took a radio-friendly, MTV-oriented soft rock album to finally bring him the public acclaim which had eluded him for most of his career.
Whatever the aims of the album in general, it achieves much much more than simple pop acceptability when it launches into the opening track of the second side and most successful single released from the album, “Addicted to Love”. Now that was a great track. And as for the video which accompanied it, well starkly beautiful clone-like models all providing the backing band (though in reality they were just there for the visual effect) while Palmer strutted his stuff in a three-piece suit. It was a masterful video and a superb piece of marketing. It is hard to think of anyone else besides Palmer coming up with the idea. When the video to “Addicted to Love” was released, it was regarded as sexist. To hell with that. The best dressed man in pop backed by a band of gorgeous young women in short skirts and vermillion red lipstick, all with brushed back black hair is eye catching, different and in no way as exploitative as the drivel which comes out of gangsta rap. Now that is the sort of band I want to be in! Just think of the post gig parties and the late nights in the studio.
The songs on Riptide are, by and large, infectious pop-rock which is good enough as it is, but nothing more. If you like your music to challenge you on an intellectual level, you will probably not like this. Other catchy numbers on the album included “Hyperactive”, “I Didn't Mean to Turn You On”, “Discipline of Love” and “Flesh Wound”. The principal downside, apart from the usual aforementioned generic issues I have with eighties pop generally, is the inclusion of a reprise to the title track “Riptide”. I hate reprises, considering them to be a lazy way of filling out empty space on an album and nothing more. Title track or not, reprising one of the least effective tracks on the album is a definite negative in my view.
Yet, despite the huge success of “Addicted to Love” as a single, Palmer had musical creativity which transcended the frequently banal world of MTV-oriented soft rock. He was able to bring creativity and catchiness to the music he performed, and whip up a crowd very quickly into a frenzy. Some time after the release of this album, Palmer went back to the music he loved most. Sadly, his premature death from a heart attack a few years back robbed us of more of his unique view of the world.
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