Customer Reviews

Riptide

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the most memorable videos on MTV back in 86 featured Robert Palmer with powerful drums, a snarling guitar, and instruments played (mimicked, obviously) by some chic mannequin babes in black dresses, black hair, pale makeup, and rouged lips. That was "Addicted To Love", which became Palmer's first number one hit and helped sales of his ninth album, Riptide, which became his biggest success.

The dreamy slow dance, "island in the sun" aura title track, written by Gus Kahn in 1935, serves as a soft introduction and interlude to what later follows.

"Hyperactive", which became the third single, has a partial melody that sounds like Madonna's "Angel", beginning as it does with Tony Thompson's power drums, Chic co-founder and Power Station producer Bernard Edwards' bass, and Eddie Martinez's crunchy guitars. The woman mentioned in the song is an energetic powerhouse, surprising the narrator, who seems to have a pulse on the corporate world (stock in IBM) and global-minded (a date for lunch in Singapore).

Then comes "Addicted To Love" with vocal arrangements done by Chaka Khan, Thompson's pounding power drums, rhythm keyboards, and the snarling fiery guitar solo his Power Station colleague Andy Taylor, by then late of Duran Duran. The comparison of love to a drug is given in some pointedly clever lyrics: "A one-track mind; you can't be saved/Oblivion is all you crave/If there's some left for you/you don't mind if you do/Oh, you'd like to think you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah."

His cover of blues man Earl King's "Trick Bag" gets a light synth treatment while maintaining the semblance of the original blues motif.

The romantic slow-dance schmaltz of "Get It Through Your Heart" is similar in style to "Riptide." When I first got this, I impatiently waited for this song to hear so I could jam to the next one. Which was...

The funky "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" proved ex-Time members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis did well as songwriters even before their association with Janet Jackson. I was too busy nodding to the funky Jam-Lewis arrangements and watching the chic models in the video and only half-wondered whether the guy was a dupe or a cad. Now though, I think that despite his thinking he read the girl right, he may not have done so. This fourth single made it to #2 on Billboard, and was later covered by Mariah Carey on her Glitter album.

"Flesh Wound" is the closest to metal as Palmer will get, with frantically sung lyrics and grating snarly guitar. Then comes the first single which flopped, "Discipline Of Love" which mixes funk with rock. It probably didn't because Thompson doesn't do drums on this number. The chorus is sung accompanying by the same grating guitar on the previous song.

And as it opened the album, a reprise of the title track bids the listener farewell.

Coming as it did after his lead vocals on the Duran Duran side project The Power Station, produced by Bernard Edwards, Riptide, also an Edwards production, was well-placed to give Palmer his chance in the limelight, especially with two Top Five hits. Heavy Nova would be a strong followup, but Riptide got him there.

This is the essential rock album by Palmer that became (and still is) a classic 80's smash due to it's combination of thumping bass, powerful electric guitar punching elements and semi-soulful vocals. Only Mr. Palmer could take a pop-r&b hit like Cherelle's I Didn't Mean To Turn You On and give it a good dose of guitars and drums without the song losing it's integrity which was put in by the original artist. I refuse to call this project an 80's pop-rock album (despite it's overplayed and overkilled song and video Addicted to Love).I don't consider it pop because there were no "cute" candy filler tunes. Each track was very strong and addictive.In fact, the tunes on this album bordered on being called funk-rock. If this album was a bit too hyper or strong for some, then his next follow up Heavy Nova would be the more "tamed" version of this...

This album ranks as one of my favorite albums from anyone... clearly an 80's classic, up there with Duran Duran's "Rio" album. Yes, this has "Addicted" and "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" which everyone knows, but there's also the smaller hit "Hyperactive" and "Discipline Of Love" both of which are among his best songs ever. The album goes into several different styles and moods, but it holds together remarkably well, and thanks to Bernard Edwards, Palmer never sounded better.

Robert Palmer's 1985 lp Riptide was a trans atlantic smash, one of the biggest selling albums of the year in both the UK and US in 1986. Here, the singer goes for a straight forward rock sound, abondoning his more R&B tinged songs or world music musings of previous efforts. There are no African, Latin, or Carribean influenced numbers here and not a lot of the funk rock of Palmer's early career. What this album does offer is a lot of Palmer's trademarked dance savvy pop rock, heavy guitar, and slick production. "Addicted To Love", the lp's second single, became Palmer's signature hit during his career, a US#1 and UK Top 5 that became the standard bearer for Palmer's rock/dance savvy sound. The less successful first single "Discipline Of Love" also has a strong dance groove sound to it, but decidedly darker lyrics. Palmer does display some R&B funk on the groove oriented "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On", a US and UK Top 10 single that became another signature hit for the artist. With only 9 songs, it's mostly Palmer's rock stuff that is featured, although the singer does a credible job remaking the classic 30's Torch song "Riptide", and excells further on a similair sounding original composition "Get It Through Your Heart". These songs give an early hint to Palmer's love of pre rock era jazz and romantic standards which would dominate much of his work into the mid 90's. Bernard Edwards (Chic) helped produce the album, re joining with Palamer after their successful stint in The Power Station. Likewise, guitarist Andy Taylor (Duran Duran) also rejoins with RP after their Power Station run. This is a solid album, but not as representative of the singer's career as other records. If it's Palmer's rock sound that you enjoy, then this album should work for you.

Considering Robert Palmer seemed to go barely noticed for the electronica/funk/caribbean styled hyrid of his previous album Pride it's clear that he was going to get groove back for the follow up. He's spent the majority of the decade so far looking to be more creatively innovative than commercial and here he found a way to combine both,with a very simple concept: put two massive pop hits on an album that become so enormous that you can spend the rest of the album basically do whatever you want. "Riptide" is an old standard done up in a kind of mid 80's synth-rock style. Kind of an odd variation on what Nelson George called the "retro neuvo" trend in some 80's music. The brittle electro dance-rock of "Hyperactive" (not the Thoma Dolby song),"Flesh Wound" and "Discipline Of Love" are not very far removed from the style of music Palmer would use as a member of Power Station around the same time. "Trick Bag" tries to go for a heavy funk-rock flavor and with all the cooks in the kitchen from Bernard Edwards,Tony Thompson and keyboard player Wally Badarou the drums and electronics are just a little too heavy to accomodate the sound of funk,which isn't as based in loudness but actually serves to bring out both the advantages and limitations of the funk/rock hybrid. "Addicted To Love" is the big 80's "rock" song that hooked everyone into this album and is presented here in an extended lengh on this album. Because it's so obvious a pop single this song works much better in an edited format. The Robert Palmer composition "Get It Through Your Heart" is the only real ballad on the album and is a strong highlite again the the retro neuvo torchy vocal jazz sort of style. I realize to hear it from the horses mouth "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" was written tongue and cheek but the style of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis was as strong as anything else here and,the way I view it it's an 80's dance-funk classic and underrated even by the artist himself. This review by the way refers to the digipack edition of this album which is,in my neck of the woods the most commonly available format for this CD. The CD by the way has superb sound quality for a release of it's era. This is probably one of Robert Palmer's most commercial albums considering he was an artist not always known for being a consistant sellout. At the same time you'd be surprised at how experimental a lot of the music is.

1985 was a huge year in music for many artists & Robert Palmer was no exception. He had not 1 but 2 hugely successful albums that year. First he became the singer for the ultra cool & funky supergroup - Power Station & their first album which was one of the greatest debuts ever, spawned 2 top 10 hits. Then, along with two of the members of Power Station & it's producer Bernard Edwards, Palmer also made the hugely succesful "Riptide" which was another big album that year & definitely one of Palmer's all time best. It spawned 2 of his biggest hits - The #1 "Addicted To Love" & #3 "I Didn't Mean to Turn you On". These 2 songs were great & remain Palmer classics for all time but why the 3rd single, the underrated & underplayed "Hyperactive" wasn't a bigger hit, will remain one of life's great mysteries. It was an incredibly catchy dance track that had great lyrics, terrific drumming by Tony Thompson (who one music critic said provided "a drum sound that sounded as if it were recorded in God's own personal recording studio"), passionate singing by Palmer and it also had #1 hit written all over it. So why it didn't do better is anyone's guess. Maybe it wasn't promoted enough or maybe it just didn't have a clever enuff video behind it like "Addicted" had. Whatever the case, it is IMHO the best song on the record. There are also other good tracks to be found here as well. Songs like "Trick Bag" is a bouncy light synth ladden bluesy song that isn't bad & "Flesh Wound" is a really hard rocking almost metal sounding track that is somewhat addictive after a few listens. The best of the non-hits though is "Discipline Of Love". It has a great beat to it, cool synth bass & a pretty good melody to it. I think it would've even done pretty well as a single if given the chance. The only real weak part of this record is the title track & closer (of the same name) which have a muzak-y tropical sound to them & sound nothing like the rest of the album. The only reason I can think that Palmer recorded them is becuz he had an affinity for the Carribean (Hey don't we all?) & he even lived in the Bahamas at the time. But they just don't fit in well with the rest of the hard rocking music that makes up the rest of this otherwise great album. All in all though, this album is definitely worth owning & is a true gem from Palmer's long & eclectic career. May he R.I.P.

P.S. This album is long overdue for a re-mastered version cuz this album is a classic & these songs are way too good to still have that flat 16-bit lifeless sound from the 80's. So hopefully all us Robert Palmer fans will see a re-release in the near future.

A classic for anyone's collection. Robert died too young and I think this was his best album.

Well - Hyperactive / Didn't Mean To Turn You On - songs I can't simply live without. I've played this CD over and over.

It's summer 1986. I'm 21 years old. I get a summer job in Manhattan after junior year of college, and I buy the cassette of "Riptide" after hearing the song "Hyperactive" on the radio.

Every morning taking the LIRR to Manhattan, I have this album playing on my Walkman. Hey, I already had heard "Addicted to Love" but I really thought "Hyperactive" was a better song.

Only Peter Gabriel's "So" competed with this album for Walkman time that summer. I knew very little about Robert Palmer before this record so I can't comment about this album alongside his other material. But if you're looking for a rocking album, this guy had some really good songs on this record.

After a short period of success with The Power Station,Robert Palmer returned to being a soloist with RIPTIDE. The title track was written in 1935,according to the copyright information. ADDICTED TO LOVE was one of 1986's most popular hits. "Weird Al" Yankovic later used the music with his lyrics to ADDICTED TO SPUDS. HYPERACTIVE was another hit. So was I DIDN'T MEAN TO TURN YOU ON which was later covered by Mariah Carey. The video for ADDICTED TO LOVE featured Palmer,dressed in a tie and slacks,flanked by beautiful "mannequins". The video for I DIDN'T MEAN TO TURN YOU ON was the same except,I think Palmer wore a jacket. An edited version of ADDICTED TO LOVE appears on ADDICTIONS VOLUME 1,released in 1989. I dedicate this album to the memory of Palmer who suddenly died of a heart attack on September 26,2003.