Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley
ROBERT PALMER
(Island)

For those who only know the late Robert Palmer from the "Addicted to Love" video and that hyper-processed Power Station stuff, this album will come as a surprise, maybe even a shock. The dapper British singer is joined by Lowell George of Little Feat (on slide guitar) and members of The Meters for this triumph of funky blue-eyed soul. The album begins with a chugging version of George's "Sailin' Shoes" that rivals the original. The title song is a salacious hoot, built around a chunky syncopated groove, fired by a grinding clavinet. Seriously, check out this album. You won't believe it.

This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...