Honey

Artist: Robert Palmer
Label: EMI Int'l
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 724383030125
EAN: 0724383030125
ASIN: B000002TSP

Release Date: 1994-09-20

Honey

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Tracks:

Honey A
Honey B
You're Mine
Know By Now
Nobody But You
Love Takes Time
Honeymoon
You Blow Me Way
Close To The Edge
Closer To The Edge
Girl U Want
Wham Bam Boogie
Big Trouble
Dreams Come True

Similar Items:

Drive
Don't Explain
Woke Up Laughing
Ridin' High
Secrets

Customer Reviews:

One of his best.......2006-07-17

Palmer always produced solid music and strong, yet varied albums. Honey is no exception. Released during a popularity downslide after his 80's commercial success, Honey is a personal album of mixed styles, starting with the sweet, moving to pop and eventually elevating to perhaps Palmer's heaviest work near the end. I was 16 when I got this album (and when it was released) so was more interested in his heavier work. He's on fire with the rock tracks here. The softer tracks grew on me later.

1. Honey A is a gentle opener. Nice African beats and vocals which lead straight into
2. Honey B which is a classic RP style. Kind of like of Every Kind Of People but more up tempo.
3. You're Mine is slower and grittier with horns blaring and heavy guitar in the style of Simply Irresistible. A good track but let down a little by the off beat chorus.
4. Know By Now is one of RP's best. It's straight up commercial pop/rock. I love this song.
5. Nobody But You is a good track without being great. Another change of style but with a similar tempo to Know By Now. Nice vocals and changes with a steel drum thrown in at the end.
6. Love Takes Time is a soulful finger clicking ballad. Nice song.
7. Honeymoon is a nice short soft interlude. The song would fit on RP's Don't explain (the second half) or Ridin' High. Perhaps would have been better suited to one of the these albums.
8. You Blow Me Away is one of RP's best. Light and heavy all in one it grabs you on first listen. Sweeping, catchy melody - should have been a hit.
9. Close To The Edge is a nice vocal track. Good beats that lead into the even better
10. Closer To The Edge which is the rock version of the previous track. This song is awesome and shows RP is as competent at rock as he is reggae, jazz or blues. One of his best.
11. Girl U Want is a Devo cover and the first single from the album. Again one of RP's best ever; it's fast, hard and catchy.
12. Wham Bam Boogie carries the rock theme with a slight twist - a boogie twist.
13. Big Trouble is a hard edged romp. One of RP's heaviest ever and hard to like.
14. Dreams Come True is soft musical end to one of RP's most diverse and best albums.

It probably has too much of a mix of styles to appeal to those not true RP fans, but I highly recommend you give it a try - if you can find it. It's RP at his softest and heaviest all in the space of 50 minutes.

A Honey Of An Album.......2005-10-30

I know all of Palmer's recordings. I have them all, even the two that suck--"Rhythm and Blues" and "Live at the Apollo." I won't include "Secrets" with the sucky albums, although it almost makes the cut. The rest of his albums are from good, to very good, to great. This album is arguably one of his best.

I realize that not everyone can agree with this statement. In some people's minds it's because this is not a coherent "album" of songs. But I can't agree. I think it's a strong set that holds together really well. True, it's almost as eclectic as his career. But there's not one song on the disc that is bad, or any where close. Most of the songs are very good. Some just plain kill me.

This disc got my wife singing "Girl U Want". How cool is that? She grew up on the Beatles and knew nothing of Devo, yet she has learned to love Robert Palmer from hearing so damn much of him while riding in my car. Believe me, to see her singing along--"Look at you with your mouth watering. Look at you with your mind spinning. Why don't you just admit it's all over? She's just the girl u want!"--is a hoot. And kinda sexy.

The album opens with Honey A & Honey B, very stong pieces both. And they're very fun to sing, drum, and dance along with. Palmer wrote Honey A when he was still in his midteens, shortly before leaving Malta where he had lived most of his life until then. It was in Malta that he gained his love for and learned much about the African rhythms that he incorporates into much of his music. Honey B also includes many of these rhythms in a fun song that weaves 4 separate parts into a terrificly buoyant, polyrhythmic juju romp. Love it. Absolutely love it.

Incidentally, the girl kissing Robert's cheek on the cover is not just some model babe. That's the love of his life, his honey. No wonder he looks pretty happy.

We hear on this album the other interests of Palmer's career: Bossa Nova, ballads, heavy metal, and the other things that defy categorization (like Wham Bam Boogie, an hilarious soundscape).

Honeymoon, a gentle bossa nova love song is simply gorgeous, addictively so. The lyrics paint a pastel-colored picture of lovers in a Carribbean getaway. Lovely.

You Blow Me Away in the hands of anyone else would just sound like an over the top '80s rock ballad. I can't listen to this without singing along with my wife filling my thoughts and my heart. So, there it is. This isn't the first time he was succesful in transcending a genre. Though this is his last successful rock-love-ballad that I can think of, and one of my fave raves.

This is not an album for people who like their records all one flavor. But you're not that type of person. Are you?

Honey features familiar pleasures for Robert Palmer fans..........2005-07-30

Honey features familiar pleasures for Robert Palmer fans. Present here are the worldbeat references which Palmer, incidentally, had started incorporating into his work as far back as the '70s. Also in place are the soul and funk touches and the blistering hard rock guitar parts. The latter come courtesy Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme, who is given free rein to rampage over the second half of the album, blowing guitar-hero sized holes in the woodwork.

Palmer himself sounds as inhumanly suave as ever, though much of the material is a prescription for déjà vu. Tracks like the funk-lashed cover of Devo's "Girl U Want" are dead ringers for the stuff on the Riptide album. Much of the first half is given over to the worldbeat excursions, complete with Palmer singing in what sounds like pretend African dialect on the title track. That's two title tracks actually - "Honey A" and "Honey B" (yes, very clever). Ironically, given its title, this album is much more hard-edged than Heavy Nova and Riptide, with only a couple of tracks that allow Palmer to showcase the soul-man persona that was previously such a big part of his oeuvre. Highlights include "Know By Now," a tasty mid-paced rocker, and "Nobody But You," a twitchy, coiled funk ditty. Honey has its moments, and plenty to spare, but it also occasionally gives the impression of a man who's trying too hard, which is the antithesis of everything the super laid-back Palmer has come to represent.

This Honey sure isn't sweet.......2003-10-07

*First off, Robert Palmer's death (9/26) broke my heart but I can't let that cloud my mind. So here's my review:

I'm sorry but I have to say that this was Robert's worst album. Now don't get me wrong, I am and always will be a Palmer fan but Honey didn't do it for me. It lacked heart, was over-produced and his usual wit seemed forced by his song choices. The title tracks Honey A & B were mismatch he should've chose either one or the other instead of using both but neither were good. The DEVO cover is OK and "Know by now" should've been a hit but the more `metal' tracks "Big Trouble" and "Wham bam boogie" left me cold. I bought this CD because of two songs "You're mine" and "Love takes time" and they're STILL the only songs I liked from this album. Maybe it's me but I don't know why everyone gave Honey four or five stars, but for me Honey was too bitter to swallow.

Music Album:

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

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Making Up Lost Time ~ Tom Saviano

Keepin' in the Groove ~ Rob Schneiderman

D-Influence D-Vaz ~ Various Artists

First Fifteen Years 1939-54 ~ Harry James & His Orchestra

Chile con Soul ~ Poncho Sanchez

Les Plus Belles Chansons ~ Michel Jonasz

Acustico Sertanejo ~ Tonny Tavio, Ze Rhael

Dot to Tha Dot ~ Skoop on Somebody

Salute to Israel ~ Feenjon Group, El Avram Group