Robert Palmer Heavy Nova CD

 Heavy Nova Solid Effort By Palmer
Heavy Nova, Robert Palmer's ninth solo album, finds the singer attempting to satisfy all the various nitches of his ecclectic career. The dance friendly, guitar heavy hard rock that vaulted the singer to the top of charts in the mid 80's is aptly represented with "More Than Ever" (complete w/ a frenetic pounding percussion and guitar solo) and "Simply Irresistibe", the latter being one of the singer's biggest hit singles in the US. Palmer's afection for romantic standards is shown on his cover of Peggy Lee's classic "It Could Happen To You" and on the original composition "She Makes My Day" (the album's biggest hit in the UK). Meanwhile, Palmer finds time to embrace of more R&B friendly side w/ a cover of Jermaine Jackson's "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming" and slightly more hard rocking, edgy version of the Gap Band's "Early In The Moring" (an excellent cut and another US hit single). The juxtaposition of such different musical styles seems harsh at times, although once you get through the initial sock of the mood change each segment of the album has strength. There are a few throw away cuts that detract from the overall quality ("Disturbing Behavior" being the most obvious with it's overly simplistic lyric repeated constantly throughout the arrangement)of the album, but the material that is good is very good. Palmer even shows a sense of humor with an African influenced arrangement on "Change His Ways", a comical novelty song in which he clearly has fun (he even yodels!) while not taking himself too seriously. Overall this is a solid if not spectacular effort, a step behind Palmer's more challenging work on his 70's albums but still a good buy.
Submitted by ThomasMLeonard2003 (Pittsburgh, PA)
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