As we keep calm and carry on, we offer you a recent video release from Joe Normal, for his song ‘Ya Gotta Open Your Heart’, taken from the forth-coming album release ‘Public Works’ which is due out March 24, via his record label New Jersey Phonograph.
This song, as well as Normal himself, have a very 90’s feel, with big, airy vocals and what are either a string section or synth textures, perhaps both, and though it’s not immediate, there is a bit of a Brit-pop nod here, ala The Verve and ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ or, was it ‘The Last Time’ from the Rolling Stones? Things that make you go hmmm.
Normal is ever so gently hammering the message in the repeating chorus – the song title also preaches the same. All the while, he does his best mad hatter for the video camera and plays a purple cello, which has been thoughtfully staged with his matching purple highlights and sunglasses. Normal has some simple, yet effective flair.
In case you didn’t know, Normal apparently co-wrote with Sammy Hagar back in the 90’s and played in some successful bands in what might be remembered as the ‘glam rock’ scene in LA. It does feel like long ago. The versatile Mr. Normal, wrote, recorded, produced this new song as well as directed the music video himself. The video is relatively unremarkable production wise, however some added information gives a deeper meaning to the song lyrics, the video’s setting, and we might have missed it otherwise. Normal tells us in his comments posted below the official video release, as he states, “This glorious and picturesque bridge remains the final destination for over a hundred lost souls that leapt to their death, a few who may still continue to pace its decks unseen and walk the unsettling grounds below in the twilight hours. With this video, I honor both the incredible engineering beauty of this magnificent structure, and pay my respects to the suffering, the despairing, to those who surrendered to a calling that you nor I may ever comprehend. God Rest Their Souls.”
