Though Robert Palmer's taste in source material remains as impeccable as his taste in clothes, the jarring juxtapositions on Don't Explain sound more like the work of a man who would mix stripes, checks and plaids. An eighteensong sprawl, the album presents three separate exercises in style, and Palmer makes little attempt to weave the divergent strands into a coherent pattern.

Don't Explain opens with Palmer in his Power Station mode, this time with Steve Stevens, Billy Idol's former guitarist, providing most of the firepower behind the singer's mock urgency. From there, the album extends Palmer's Pressure Drop explorations through curiosities that range from "History," featuring Palmer as a one-man Ladysmith Black Mambazo, to a reggae rearrangement of Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," with UB40 providing backup. The third, and lamest, style finds him returning to his easy-listening Riptide phase – torch jazz (including the Billie Holiday title cut) and soft samba swing, with coproduction by Teo Macero (best known for his work with Miles Davis).

In addition, the album offers anemic updates of soul standards by Otis Redding ("Dreams to Remember") and Marvin Gaye ("Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You"). While Palmer may consider such eclecticism a mark of audacity, it actually represents a failure of vision, an inability to take the next interpretive step that would fit the pieces together and make these disparate styles his own. (RS 596)

DON MCLEESE