Norwegian power-poppers I Was A King release their debut UK single as a seven-inch and download through Sonic Cathedral Recordings on November 16.
‘Norman Bleik’ is three minutes of pop perfection, mixing heavenly West Coast harmonies with ringing Rickenbacker chords. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the song is also a tribute to Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake – the punning misspelling of his name a reference to the Fanclub’s 1995 classic ‘Neil Jung’. Whereas the Jung of that title was referring to the eminent Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, Bleik is a small town in the remote far north of Norway and a popular location for people wishing to see the northern lights. A more appropriate analogy for this beautiful song would be hard to find. Oh, and if the Fanclub flattery couldn’t get any more convoluted – and before Norman takes out a restraining order – the cover of I Was A King’s single features a rather striking close-up of the Norm’s Restaurant sign in Los Angeles, under which Mr Blake is seen posing on the inside of the ‘Grand Prix’ sleeve.
‘Norman Bleik’ is taken from the band’s self-titled second album, which finally gets a UK release on February 1, 2010. It’s a star-studded affair, with I Was A King mainman Frode Strømstad joined by the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Daniel Smith (Danielson), Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor) and Emil Nikolaisen (Serena Maneesh).
Nikolaisen features prominently on the B-side of ‘Norman Bleik’, a cover of Lou Reed’s ‘She’s My Best Friend’, which Frode is keen to point out follows the lead of The Velvet Underground’s version from ‘VU’, rather than the “horrible” one on ‘Coney Island Baby’. “I always thought that with a great song like that, you can’t really go wrong,” he explains. And he hasn’t. What starts out as a nice, reverential cover builds to a brilliantly unhinged conclusion.
I Was A King will be in the UK for a series of live dates in November, including:
Thursday, November 19 – The Lexington, London
Monday, November 23 – Sonic Cathedral @ The Social, London
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I Was A King 'Norman Bleik' released 16th November
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