Album Review

Norman Palm – Shore to shore

• 18th Mar 2011

You’re going to hear one of these songs in a commercial one day soon, I’m sure of it. They’re Dan Draper’s ideal combination of quirky yet conventional, interesting but not overly taxing, bubbly but clever.

In this, his second and more conventional album (his debut was a limited edition artbook with songs), all-round creative bloke Norman Palm has written about love from a distance, with all the desire and poignancy that entails. But somehow he remains musically upbeat about it all – it’s heartbreak with a bemused, resigned shrug of the shoulders. Sadness you can dance to.

Despite my snobbish music pretensions, the Eighties-inspired poppyness of the music, and the fact Perez Hilton’s a big supporter, I can’t help but like it. This album is a persistent puppy – playful, fun, intelligent and affectionate, it’s sometimes annoying but so cute you love it anyway.
Palm’s singing and song-writing voices help. Vocally he’s puts me in mind of Gary Jule’s version of “Mad World” – high, wavering and pleasantly grating. His lyrics, too, are slightly out of kilter, but assembled with a graceful simplicity that really hits home.

The single “Easy” sums up the album well. Its rapid, house-like electronic backing track and light, whirling synthesisers border on cheesy, but quiet organ-like layers wail away there somewhere, and a cute little keyboard rift lifts it into specialness. Lyrically, lines like “Let’s all be friends with the millions of miles / Let’s all be friends with seduction in files” make me want to have a long-distance relationship just so I can quote this song to someone…

This is a short but varied album, packed chockablock with ukuleles, steel drums, harmonic backing choirs, guitars and synthesisers. Palm’s experiments into different styles (US indie, a little bit country, vaguely African/Caribbean, poptastic electronic) have varying levels of success but somehow feel sufficiently resolved and interwoven to work. And at least it’s never dull.

It’s a mixed bag, this album, and sometimes feels like a bit of a sugar overload, but some of the sweets are real good ‘uns.