"Boys Don't Cry"
From Songs
Ratio Records / Morr Music, 2009
Listen to "Boys Don't Cry” MP3
Along the way between Berlin, Paris and Mexico City, Norman Palm assembled a mesmerizing collection of often winsome songs, pairing each with his own artwork to create the unique release / book entitled Songs. The original run published by Ratio Records having quickly been picked up by fans, Songs as a book / CD package is now enjoying a wide re-release via Morr Music. On the album, Norman provides most of the instrumentation himself and worked with Finnish producer Jonas Verwijnen (Annie, The Whitest Boy Alive), looking to the basic structure of the songs as his musical plumb line.
One of Norman's oldest tracks which appears on Songs is the sympathetic cover of The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry". Norman approaches the song with a sense of melancholy and deliberate stillness. The track was first released on a limited edition vinyl together with a cover of Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". Norman told us that he gravitated to these songs "because they are both icons of the 80's, saying so much about the roles of women and men at the time. In 'Boys Don't Cry' it's about the guys who can't really show their feelings because they are not supposed to as guys. The song is really sad, but in the original version its up-beat and people dance to it…. So I wanted to give the song its meaning back by singing it in the saddest way possible, even adding this moody almost whining trombone (which was played by Sebastian Maschat from The Whitest Boy Alive)."
Norman celebrates the release of Songs in France with a show at the Pop In in Paris on 30 September.
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