Gene Page’s string arrangement adds a degree of sugar to Which of Us Is the Fool where a sinuous bass line bubbles along under Palmer’s vocal challenge to the girl in a sequel to the previous track that winds up proceedings without resolving the issues.
Maybe they can never be resolved.
James Jamerson is in top form, Palmer shows he can do gritty as well as smooth, the strings do their thing and we’ve got a rather classy piece of blue eyed soul.
With the reggae elements, and knowing Palmer would soon be bound for the Bahamas you might be tempted to tag Pressure Drop as Palmer’s first Caribbean-influenced album, but, when you look at it closely it’s the mixture more or less as before with a few new elements (the reggae being one, along with a slight nod towards the disco) added to the feel good New Orleans funk.
While it doesn’t quite hit the same heights as Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley, Pressure Drop demonstrates that the first album wasn’t a fluke, and it just might be the unjustly overlooked album in Palmer's discography, which was just about to head towards commercial success.
Took a while to find after it disappeared from the iTunes Store, but I’m glad I did.