Norman Lamont

Norman Lamont – Romantic Fiction 2 – listen to extracts here

I love the way Norman Lamont mixes pathos and humour in his work. So he starts off his latest CD, Romantic Fiction 2, with an upbeat song, Nicole about a hopeless passion for a universally irresistible woman of that name and here’s a verse:-

I went to my wife and she said Joe
If you’re going to tell me something tell me something I don’t know
She said I’ve got some sympathy for what you’re going through
Because ever since I saw her man I, I love her too

My favourite track is Crying in the Street, which is a classic wet mascara song about lost love. Norman’s voice is effectively husky on this. In a just world it would be a standard in the repertoire of the sad chanteuse.

When I Went To Your House has a Scottish lament feel to it, and a pure lead vocal by Tricia Thom. Again, a heart breaking song which brings me out in a chill and captures the pain of love. A really beautiful song.

Love songs make up about 90% of all the songs written and you would think you can’t do much in that line to rejuvenate the oldest subject. However Norman sets a scene – he dramatises the love, whether of someone reeling from the shock of a break-up:-

I thought when I burned those bridges
Freedom would taste so sweet
So I’m free in the wild
Like a lost frightened child
Crying in the street.

Or someone leaving their present partner to visit their new lover:-

When I went to your house
Sun going down
I drove through the suburbs
And out of the town . . .

And I don’t know if you were
Surprised that I came
When I got to your house
You just said my name

We started an avalanche
As we knew we would
And much was destroyed
That was precious and good

But we can’t help but grab for
The things that we lack
When I went to your house
And never went back

In Submarine Girl Norman returns to his upbeat humour and is clever and funny. And although Norman disclaims this in his sleeve notes, dirty as well:

"Some audiences seem to think it suggestive – if they saw the punctuation, they’d understand ("I’ve never gone down on a submarine, girl" – note the comma.")

Well, although you can sing a comma, ie a pause, singing "I’ve never gone down on a submarine [pause] girl" is still going to sound dirty.

The CD ends with a cover of the Water is Wide, and with its melodic female vocals rounds off a tuneful and lyrically rich CD.

(Romantic Fiction 2 is for sale on Norman's website - £5 incl post & packing)