This came out in 2000 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The title sounds promising, doesn’t it? Too bad it’s a promise blue-eyed soul man Robert Palmer doesn’t keep on the 20th album of his 26-year career.
Unlike the funky, juke-joint grooves you expect to find on a disc named Rhythm & Blues, this self-penned, self-performed, self-produced affair sees Palmer going for a slick, synthesized-soul vibe, laying down layers of syrupy keyboards, lying back in the mix and even reworking Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — just as there’s no fault to be found with his delicate folky cover of Lowell George’s Twenty Million Things, the Afro-Cuban vibe of Stone Cold or the slices of reggae and Caribbean techno-pop on display here. It’s just that, aside from a few tracks that give up the funk as advertised, Rhythm & Blues is like being handed brandy when you’ve been promised bourbon.
