Robert Palmer--The King of Suave Rock : CHECK LIST ****<i> Great Balls of Fire</i> ***<i> Good Vibrations</i> **<i> Maybe Baby</i> *<i> Running on Empty</i>

** 1/2 ROBERT PALMER. “Heavy Nova.” EMI-Manhattan. You’ve gotta love a guy who’s singing heavy-metal dance music one moment and yodeling (!) against a fiddle backdrop the next. That’s Robert Palmer, the King of Suave Rock, back with another cross-cultural rock ‘n’ romance extravaganza, this one featuring the influences of Brazil and Soweto, as well as renditions of songs made famous by Peggy Lee, the Gap Band and Jermaine Jackson.

Eclecticism only goes so far, though, before you want to hear strong songs behind all the orchestras and trumpets and screaming guitars and Brazilian vocalists and funky rhythms, and that’s where “Heavy Nova” comes up a little light. “Simply Irresistible,” the first single, is in the same vein as “Addicted to Love.” That and the equally hard-dance-rocking “More Than Ever” both connect, as does the more rootsy “Disturbing Behavior.” The string-laden Peggy Lee standard “It Could Happen to You” makes for an agreeable digression from all the rhythmic aggression.

Less successfully, “She Makes My Day” is Palmer’s failed attempt to write a McCartney-esque pop ballad; the structure and production are so complex you end up digging the bass lines more than the melody, which Palmer’s voice is unable to find in the lack of focus. That’s emblematic of much of the LP: not enough striking hooks, but more than enough fun instrumental textures and oddities.